The Wellness Journey
Our diet, lifestyle, relationships, and work-life balance influence our state of mind. When any one of these factors becomes unbalanced, they become unhealthy, leaving us feeling overwhelmed and unable to cope.
The recent pandemic and subsequent lockdown periods have not helped with keeping a balance. Issues such as panic buying, travel restrictions and not being able to meet with friends and family contribute to heightened levels of anxiety. One survey conducted in the UK found over 69% of adult respondents were feeling somewhat or very worried about the effect COVID is having on their life. One of the most common issues impacting wellbeing is feeling stressed or anxious, this affected 56% of respondents.
The new routine of working from home presents several problems. In fact, one common misconception is that having no commute is one of the biggest benefits of working from home. This is not the case. The same busy work schedule with no commute means a work-life balance is harder for us to achieve. Recent research by Microsoft found that a commute helped to mentally transition workers to and from work. The absence of structure and no wind down can impact wellbeing and productivity, leading to the ‘faux commute’ to help create boundaries to reach this balance.
No matter what our round-the-clock lifestyles and adapting to the ‘new normal’ looks like, the result remains the same, we end up being overburdened and stressed out. And when our mind suffers, so does our emotional, social, and occupational wellness.
Well… What is Wellness?
Wellness is defined as a state of good health that we proactively and continuously endeavour to achieve. Wellness is holistic and all-encompassing. Wellness is multi-dimensional, and most models include the following dimensions: Physical, Emotional, Occupational, Intellectual, Social, Environmental and Spiritual.
People are seeking out holistic solutions. A more natural approach is enticing consumers who are striving to achieve wellness.
4 Ways to Achieve Wellness
1. Skin Care Rituals = Self-Care
To achieve holistic wellness, we have seen an increase in skin care rituals to manage mental wellbeing. Mintel found that the reason for 45% of U.K. 16- to 34-year-olds increasing their beauty rituals during the pandemic was to decrease their stress or anxiety.
These rituals are also linked to relaxation with a focus on winding down after the working day, marking the start of some me-time in the evening. This trend is also impacted by the increased desire to wear less make-up when working from home and have healthy skin in e-meetings.
2. Let’s Get Physical!
More time during lockdown and gym closures has inspired us to be more active. Fitbit data found that the lockdown saw a global increase in both stress-reducing activities and exercises that we don’t need access to a gym to participate in.
This has shifted from the first lockdown where initially research in June 2020 found step count lowered and active minutes had risen. Since June, active minutes have fallen but Fitbit users are engaging with more stress managing activities.
3. Being Mindful
Being present in the moment has seen an increased interest in 2020.
With more time on our hands during lockdown we have turned to meditation for stress management. Fitbit data found that partaking in meditation saw an increase of 2900% worldwide. This trend is also being brought more to the forefront with developments like the collaboration between streaming giant Netflix and Headspace to create a series to benefit our minds.
4. Healthy body, healthy mind
To improve our mood in stressful times we need all the help we can get, starting our wellness journey by restoring balance.
A popular dietary supplement people are turning towards on their journey to wellness is Cannabidiol (CBD). CBD can nourish the mind and body by interacting with our endocannabinoid system. We all have an endocannabinoid system in our body which impacts our physical and mental wellbeing. CBD binds with our inner receptors positioned throughout the endocannabinoid system helping restore our body to a balanced state.
The Rise of CBD
CBD is one of the most exciting wellness solutions to emerge in the past 10 years and its benefits frequently make headlines. CBD is well known by consumers to have broad therapeutic effects. A Nutrition Business Journal survey found that consumer awareness of CBD increased from 47% in 2018 to 70% in 2019 and continues to go from strength to strength.
CBD is one of the most mentioned health trends on social media globally. According to research by Babylon Health, it also has the most research behind it in comparison to other popular wellness trends like ‘clean beauty’ and ‘holistic healing’.
Social media offers insights of anecdotal evidence on therapeutic purposes of CBD directly from users. One study collected and analysed all comments from the CBD subreddit posted between January 1 and April 30, 2019 and comments submitted to the FDA regarding regulation of cannabis-derived products. It found that of all comments posted to the CBD subreddit during the monitored time span, 6.19% mentioned anxiety indicating there is a growing link in our minds between CBD and its positive effects on anxiety.
While the science is in its infancy, CBD is safe to consume and research is finding positive results for a broad spectrum of health concerns. Evidence is growing, with the number of scientific studies increasing year-on-year on PubMed. A review published in 2020 reviewed 76 articles of research into CBD, both reviews and human intervention studies, conducted in 2019 and 2020. The review found that of those studies focused on anxiety and stress, more than 70% showed positive outcomes.
CBD Vs. Meditation
CBD has overtaken meditation… in terms of Google Searches. Meditation is an established method to benefit our mental wellbeing. Google searches for ‘Meditation’ when lockdown kicked in saw a rise which has since dropped off whereas CBD continues to reach new heights. Searches for ‘CBD’ rose from less than a mere curiosity to an ingredient with increasing public interest. They spiked in 2018 when CBD started to become more mainstream. Since then, it has only exceeded expectations with consumers increasingly searching for CBD.
Why choose CBD?
Meditating is more difficult than it seems, and it takes time to really be an effective strategy. CBD provides a more convenient 21st century solution than meditation and delivers quicker results. CBD can also benefit your lifestyle in many different ways.
Why not make your own evening CBD ritual?! One example could be to incorporate mindfulness by the mindful consumption of CBD by way of sublingual consumption. You will find your sublingual gland under the tongue, hold the CBD oil there for 60 seconds before swallowing. Use these 60 seconds to be mindful and be in the present.
This also benefits the efficacy of the CBD as the CBD compounds are absorbed directly into the bloodstream. Because sublingual consumption is more direct, it impacts the body faster than oral consumption and maintains higher availability, only being degraded by enzymes in the mouth’s saliva.
This ensures maximum benefit – consuming the CBD in a highly efficacious way, incorporating some mindfulness into your day and achieving meditation from a bottle.
Start your mindful moment today with 20% off elénzia Pure CBD™ using code mindful20 at checkout. Or why not book in a free of charge nutrition consultation with our Nutritionist, Christie, to see how CBD can benefit you.
Shop elénzia Pure CBD™
