It’s inevitable that at some point you’ll find your daily wellness routine has bored you… that’s why I tried three new global wellness practices over the course of one week.
Winter; the days are long, and the sun is short. Unfortunately, the season is not finished despite the sneak peak of spring. In an effort to curb my seasonal blues, I decided to pull from three vastly different wellness practices from around the world to spark my cold days into something new. Here’s what I found.
Fika from Sweden
Like many Americans, I’ve grounded myself in work and a “go-go-go” mentality. Despite my brain’s objections, I pulled from the Nordics and engaged in a custom from Sweden called Fika, which is a social gathering.
“Let’s do Fika” is often an uplifting message among friends. The therapeutic social ritual often involving coffee, pastries, and companions is known to promote productivity and well-being.
Fika is a deliberate way to break up your day and is grounded in connection, Forbes reported.
In an effort to maintain the purity of the moment, I did not share with my roommates that I was intending to create a moment of Fika. Instead, I baked a dozen brie bites, put out a pot of coffee, and called them to the kitchen.
Before long, my roommates and I were (partially) unknowingly engaging in Fika. The moment was a brief but fruitful break from the workday and left me feeling recharged for my next task. I left my first intentional Fika planning to entice my companions into more in the future.
Inemuri from Japan
Have you ever been so exhausted that just the thought of closing your eyes is euphoric?
In Japan, napping during the day is not only socially acceptable – it’s common practice. The act of napping in public – known as inemuri – is the sign of a hard worker in Japan’s working culture, according to Culture.
Inemuri is prevalent among white-collar professionals because Japan’s blue-collar workers are unable to nod off while performing manual labor jobs.
As someone who is frequently tired during the day and favors caffeine over rest, I decided to embrace inemuri and take a nap for a short period of time to increase my energy levels.
Instead of my afternoon cold brew, I set an alarm for twenty-five minutes to ensure that I wouldn’t slip into an unexpectedly long nap.
I struggled to fall asleep and found myself only getting comfortable as my alarm rang to wake me up. On my second try, I slept past my alarm for an hour. On my third attempt, I woke up to my alarm and was in a groggy state for the next hour. With three failed attempts, I decided that coffee was best for now and inemuri might take more practice than I was banking on.
Focus on the Mediterranean Diet
As my wellness journey continued, I began pondering my daily diet choices and decided to pull from global diets as well.
I’ve been naturally leaning toward many Mediterranean-inspired dishes lately and jumped at the opportunity to truly commit to a Mediterranean diet for a week.
Mediterranean diet has shown it can reduce the risk of heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, depression, and more, according to Harvard Health Publishing.
For five dinners, I favored garbanzo beans as my main protein, used solely olive oil, and had a handful of nuts. I also incorporated large amounts of plant foods, including cucumbers, carrots, spinach, kale, broccoli, and mushrooms.
My Mediterranean-inspired dinners not only tasted great, but I felt great too. In contrast to other heavy red meat dishes, I felt much lighter and full without the bloat. I will most definitely continue this practice into the future.
Will you try Fika, Inemuri, or the Mediterranean diet? Or will you pull from other global customs to match your unique needs? Go explore… you never know what you might discover like I did.