Five challenges of returning to everyday life and tips for overcoming them

In this article, we strive to share tips for tackling common everyday challenges and, thus, enjoying everyday life. We hope that with the help of these tips, you will manage to maintain your overall well-being even in the midst of the busiest everyday life!

Maintaining well-being, let alone increasing it, can be challenging in the middle of a hectic everyday life – especially if you return to your everyday life after a long, relaxing summer holiday. Everyday life can bring with it a great deal of work, haste and perhaps stress, which can easily sap the strength of just about everyone.

The challenges brought by everyday life can be very diverse, and each of us experiences the challenges individually. However, there are many challenges involved in returning to everyday life with which many of us can certainly identify. For example, do lack of time, body stiffness, fatigue, poor eating habits and the boredom of working alone sound familiar?

Challenge #1. Haste and lack of time

In today's society, there seems to be precious little time, whether your daily life revolves around studies, work or both. When there is a great deal to do and time does not seem sufficient for all, sticking to lifestyles that maintain well-being may seem difficult. 

When being constantly in a hurry starts to feel too excessive, it is a good time to pause and see what you have got on your to-do list. Try listing the tasks using a pen and paper. Next, consider the priority of tasks: what is important and what is unnecessary. Prioritize the important things and eliminate the unnecessary ones so you will get some breathing space. Planning tasks and marking them on your calendar can also be helpful - especially when you feel that like you cannot really cut any of the listed tasks. When you add tasks on your calendar, you can set them aside in your mind until the calendar reminds you of them.

Be sure to mark not only tasks and deadlines on your calendar, but also enough rest and leisure time.

Challenge #2. Body stiffness and aches and pains

Do you have a tightening feeling in your shoulders or do you otherwise feel stiff? Long working days and plodding through work in various positions - especially in front of a screen - are just a few things that can easily lead to muscle stiffness and aches and pains.

Mobility training is suitable not only for preventing the formation of body stiffness, but also to easing and releasing muscle tension.

Get to know Wellness & Balance group exercise classes that develop body control and mobility and choose the one you like. The lowest-threshold mobility exercises are probably the Take a break! - exercise moments; you can participate in them several times a week, for example during a working day, remotely or on our campuses, and all of this is for free!

If sitting still and unergonomic working positions have already done their job, it might be a good idea to wipe the slate clean and start afresh by working on stiffness through getting a massage. In connection with a massage that is relaxing for both body and soul, you can also ask a professional for advice on how to avoid stiffness typical of the body in the future.

Challenge #3. Fatigue

A hectic lifestyle and stress can lead to fatigue. When there is a great deal to do and little time to do it, it may seem tempting to shorten the time one needs for rest and sleep - which inevitably leads to fatigue. This tactic may work for a single busy day, but as a continuous strategy it is poor.

There is probably no need to remind you that an adult needs 7–9 hours of sleep per night. When you already know what time you should wake up the next morning, you can easily calculate from this what time in the evening you should go to bed in order to get enough sleep. By laying your head on the pillow early enough, you ensure better energy levels the next day. Fortunately, preventing and treating fatigue is simple: sleep a little more and try to get quality sleep.

Another great thing is that regular exercise not only increases the duration of sleep but also improves its quality. By observing your own state of mind and sleep, you will learn what kind of physical activity you should engage in and how you should schedule it in order to have the best effect on your sleep.

Challenge #4. Poor eating habits

Long working or study days and busy schedules may also pose challenges to eating and nutrition which maintains well-being. A typical unwanted cycle caused by a hectic everyday life starts when you skip a snack or meal for one reason or another, which backfires later as you get a strong feeling of hunger - and you then try to curb the intense hunger with quickly available, unhealthy food. Does this sound familiar?

You can foster nutrition that promotes good eating and well-being by planning your meals a little in advance. Try to identify the kind of meal rhythm that makes you feel good and full.

If possible, also plan in advance what you will have for meals and snacks.A fruit or snack bar that you slip into your bag may be an invaluable aid, helping you get through a working or study day.

On the other hand, nutrition itself may also cause uncertainty or stress. Going through such a situation with a nutritional professional often helps you to perceive and structure your own nutritional habits and lifestyles as a whole, making it easier for you to find a balance in food In this case, the stress surrounding the subject, burdening everyday life, will also subside.

Challenge #5. The boredom of plodding along alone

Daily toil and maintaining well-being in its midst may feel like a lonely struggle. At the end of the day, you may notice that you haven't really talked to anyone, as your attention has been on work, books or the computer screen.

Perhaps you could work more closely with your colleagues at work or at school to get not only peer support but also stimulating social interaction?

Another option is to enjoy free time and physical activity with other like-minded people. Go to a gym with a friend or participate in group exercise or ball games where exercise, by its very nature, is enjoyed together - you might even get new friends in the process. Having a personal trainer to support you in your training also provides a great social aspect to your physical activity and, at the same time, provides you with a professional to support you on the journey towards well-being that will see you through both relaxed holidays and the more hectic everyday life.

 

By:

Jenni Uuras
Well-being writer and a student in the Bachelor's degree programmes in the field of health sciences

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