This morning it is the morning after the night before. Or rather, it’s the beginning of the autumn after the summer before. Yesterday was the Olympic and Paralympic Athletes’ Parade in London, and I also woke up to the news that Andy Murray won his first tennis Grand Slam title in New York. (Now there’s someone who represents gritty determination and hard work in the face of repeated setbacks). What a summer it’s been.
On my way to work today I noticed how the bunting that was first hung up for Jubilee weekend has gradually become limp and faded after a whole summer of being bright and beautiful. Impending autumn, it seems, affects everything. No doubt the flags will start coming down this week, then it will truly be back to ‘normal’ for us all.
For many of us fortunate ones ‘normal’ is a good place to be, but we could all do with a boost from time to time. So here are three suggestions for you, all designed to help restore your va-va-voom, and they are all things I have started doing in the past year that have genuinely helped me feel more zingy:
- Drinking water properly. Not just sipping at my desk, but once every hour I get up, walk to the kitchen, pour a big, beautiful glass of cold fresh water and drink it down straight. It’s amazing, you can just feel those brain cells waking up and your body becoming refreshed. Go on, try it right now and see what happens.
- Getting more sleep. It may sound obvious to you, but some of us have to really force ourselves to call an end to our day. Those Mrs Thatcher types who famously get by on 5 hours sleep a night are rare (or telling porky pies). I’d love to go to bed after midnight every night, but with a 6am start it just isn’t do-able. So go on, grab those ‘zzz’s, it’s transformational.
- Scheduling in some top quality thinking time for myself. I put a weekly one hour slot into my diary (usually on a Friday), and decide in advance what I’m going to work through in my head. It gives me permission to step away from the email and the ‘to do list’ and apply some valuable brain power to problem solve or get creative. It also means I don’t have that issue niggling away at me the rest of the week; I can let it go because I know its moment will come. My thinking slot usually involves a walk across the fields or sitting on a park bench. If wet, I take myself into a different room.
So there you are. Three ways to get some bounce back in your bungee* without investing in an expensive holiday. What tips would you share?
*With acknowledgement to Wallace and Gromit in ‘A Close Shave’