Prioritizing your well-being and taking time to indulge in self-care is extremely important.
When you look after yourself, you look better, feel better, and attract better.
Contrary to popular belief, self-care is much more than skincare and beauty: it’s about focusing on your mental & physical health and becoming more mature, confident, and attractive.
In this blogpost, you will discover 8 powerful ways to glow up from the inside-out and transform yourself & life.
Enjoy ✨
8 Ways to Glow Up Mentally & Physically
1. Educate yourself
The first way to glow up mentally is to educate yourself.
Expanding your knowledge not only makes you grow, mature, and make you more interesting, it helps you to build self-confidence.
Here are 6 ways you can start cultivating your knowledge today:
- Read books, articles, newspapers, etc.
- Listen to podcasts
- Watch documentaries
- Take (online) courses
- Watch educational videos
- Mindfully listen to others
2. Practice mindfulness
Another key ingredient for a mental glow up is mindfulness.
Practicing mindfulness helps you to take care of your mental health and cultivate a peaceful mind by – among other things – reducing anxiety1, preventing and treating depression2, improving body satisfaction3, and reducing distractions4.
In order to enjoy the benefits of this practice, make sure to incorporate a mindfulness ritual in your daily routine.
Here are 5 rituals you can try out:
- Meditation
- Breathwork
- Journaling
- Mindful eating
- Mindful listening
3. Practice self-discipline
A mature mindset is a diciplined mindset.
To glow up mentally and build inner resilience, you need to practice self-discipline.
This will not only help you to achieve your goals, feel good, and be more active, but it will also enable you to become the best version of yourself.
Here are 5 ways to improve your self-discipline:
- Eliminate distractions and temptations
- Develop habits
- Know your why
- Focus on one thing at a time
- Take care of yourself
If you want to dig deeper into these 5 points, make sure to check out my previous blogpost, where I guide you through each of these steps.
4. Move your body
Moving your body is an excellent way to take care of both your mind and body.
In fact, on the one hand, doing sports has been proven to help preventing and managing diseases, improving muscle and bone strength, ameliorating sleep, improving sexual health, and increasing your chances to live longer.
One the other hand, studies5 have also shown that exercise improves mental health by reducing anxiety, depression, and negative mood.
Furthermore, sports has been associated with better self-esteem and cognitive function, and lower degrees of social withdrawal.
To enjoy the benefits of sports, make sure to do at 30 minutes of exercise 5 times per week.
Here are some exercise ideas you can try out:
- Strength training
- Jogging
- Dancing
- Hula hoop
- Home workouts (cardio, hiit, etc.)
- Hiking
- Yoga
- Pilates
- Slacklining
- Kickboxing
- Boxing
- Martial arts
- Jump rope
- Cycling
- Swimming
5. Groom yourself
Grooming yourself is another powerful way to glow up both mentally and physically.
In fact, taking care of your appearance does not only make you look good, it makes you feel good.
It promotes self-love, self-respect, and self-confidence.
By taking care of yourself, you demonstrate that you care about yourself and that you value who you are.
Here are 6 basic personal grooming tips that will help you to always look put together:
- Practice good hygiene (body, hair, teeth, nails, clothes)
- Smell good
- Look after your skin
- Wear clothes that make you feel good
- Take care of your hairstyle
- Wear clean and comfortable shoes
Eat clean
Your diet plays the most important role in your physical health.
You are literally what you eat and, if you want to glow up physically, you have to eat healthy and wholesome foods.
Here are 11 golden principles of clean eating:
- Avoid processed and junk food
- Reduce your sugar intake
- Eat more greens
- Stay away from artifical foods
- Reduce alcohol consumption
- Eat fresh foods
- Make water your default drink
- Eat whole foods
- Distribute your macros wisely
- Reduce dairy products
- Go organic when you can
Journal
Journaling is another effective practice you can incorporate in your daily routine to take care of your mental well-being.
Indeed, studies6, 7, 8 have shown that journaling can:
- Make sadness, anger and pain less intense
- Reduce symptoms of depression
- Improve students’ stress and anxiety management
- Help you to perform an upcoming stressful task more efficiently
Here are 7 journaling ideas to try:
- Stream of consciousness writing
- Bullet journaling
- Future self journaling
- Scripting
- Gratitude journaling
- Dream journaling
- Affirmation journaling
If you want to learn more about each of these journaling styles, make sure to check out this blogpost ✨
Spend time in nature
Finally, spending time in nature is essential to glow up both mentally and physically.
Getting fresh air and being outdoors enhances your mental health by improving your mood, releasing stress and anxiety, and unlocking your creativity.
Furthermore, spending time in nature also helps your body by reducing inflamation, ameliorating your vision, boosting your immunte system, and bettering your sleep.
To enjoy the amazing benefits of nature on your mental and physical well-being, make sure to spend at least 20 minutes outdoors every day.
Here are some ideas to spend more time outside:
- Go for a walk while listening to a podcast / some music
- Explore a local park
- Read a book under a tree
- Ride your bike
- Have a picnic
- Hang out in a hammoc
- Have a walking date
- Journal in a park
- Meditate in the forest
- Go foraging
- Start a garden
Here are some articles that might interest you…
- 3 Best Scientific Tips For Glowing Skin
- 6 Steps For Success in Life
- Level up your life with this journaling exercise
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References
- Hoge et al., 2013. Randomized controlled trial of mindfulness meditation for generalized anxiety disorder: effects on anxiety and stress reactivity. The Journal of Clinical Psychiatry, pp. 786-92.
- Lu, 2015. Mindfulness holds promise for treating depression. Vol 46, No. 3, p. 50.
- Albertson et al., 2015. Self-Compassion and Body Dissatisfaction in Women: A Randomized Controlled Trial of a Brief Meditation Intervention. Mindfulness, pp. 444–454.
- McGreevey, 2011. ‘Turn down the volume’. Harvard Gazette.
- Sharma et al., 2006. Exercise for Mental Health. The Primary Care Companion To The Journal Clinical Psychiatry, 2006; 8(2): 106.
- Koopman et al., 2005. The effects of expressive writing on pain, depression and posttraumatic stress disorder symptoms in survivors of intimate partner violence. Journal of Health Psychology, pp. 211-21.
- Krpan et al., 2013. An everyday activity as a treatment for depression: the benefits of expressive writing for people diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Journal of Affective Disorders, pp. 1148-51.
- Flinchbaugh et al., 2012. Student Well-Being Interventions: The Effects of Stress Management Techniques and Gratitude Journaling in the Management Education Classroom. Journal of Management Education, pp. 191-219.