How take care of basic needs fulfill your life

Did you ever realize that you forgot to take care of yourself?

For me, oftentimes I feel my school life is so busy. There are a lot of tasks that I need to take care of. Often I feel like things are not in my control. A feeling of tension has been a close friend of mine. I feel overwhelmed as I don’t have enough time to rest. Deep down in my heart telling me to get away from this kind of situation. The thing is these feelings happen to me when I’m not prioritizing my mental and physical health but something else like school works. I let the deadline for my work define my happiness level. The more the deadline was set, The more I felt stressed and ignored my basic needs. All I want to do is to finish all the tasks first so I can rest without anxiety. But what I learned is that day will never come. For the reason that you cannot wait until you are free from all the tasks to take care of yourself later. You can procrastinate taking care of your health just like you procrastinate doing your work. However, the result has never been good, you can lose your health forever.

There is no exact date to label how long you will live in the same way that your work has a deadline. From my experience, whenever I don’t take care of myself, I feel less productive. For example, when I don’t get enough sleep, my performance at school will decrease. My mood will not be stable throughout the day which also affects my behavior.

I used to take an online course with Dr. Rajagopal Raghunathan. He teaches a course of A Life of Happiness and Fulfillment. One thing I remember from his class is that you will be a better person when you get enough sleep. I found that to be true. When I’m lacking sleep, I don’t have a feeling to socialize with people as it drains my energy but when I have a good sleep I want to talk more as I’m full of energy and productivity.

My observation of my friends

My friends and people around me are so busy with their life’s events. I found that many people didn’t take good care of their health as much as they could as they spent more time working on activity than the sleeping time at night. From my observations, my friend easily stressed out and craves more unhealthy food throughout the day. Also, they get sick more easily. A study found that a result of sleep deprivation is a part of the cortical region, the amygdala increases the desire for food (Greer et al 2013). When sleeping less and eating unhealthy along with no time to daily exercise lower your work performance. Besides, it lowers your happiness level.

How to take care of basic needs and why is it important?

According to a book by Tom Rath that Dr.Raj suggested. There are three basic needs which are to eat well, move more, and sleep better. These three factors are basic needs that are very important to fulfill your life both personal and work life. It is never too late to start taking care of yourself. My experience below may help you aware of the reason why taking care of basic needs are important and also some trick from my experiences that may help you:

Eat well — For me, this is the hardest part to do because I love sweet drinks. Especially bubble tea! I love it so much that I could skip the main meal and crave those sugar drinks. The effect of it not only makes my weight to rise and my skin to break out, but also makes me unsatisfied with myself as I have a negative mindset about my body and a bad relationship with foods. It is not only about physical health but also about my mental health as well.

Move more — less daily movement makes you unhealthy. The study shows that sitting more than six hours a day increases the chances of early death. I normally sit more than 6 hours a day as I have a class the whole day. Sitting too long makes me passive and exhausted when I need to shift from place to place.

Sleep better — Why is it so important? You may ask yourself why you need to sleep enough every day when you feel the most productive at night. I could tell you from my experience that poor sleep can affect your productivity and health. There is a period of my life when I often wake up during the night and go to the bathroom, even though I avoid drinking water 2 hours before sleep. I suffered from a lack of sleep, as my body used to work up at the same time every night. It makes me sleepy during the day that I cannot fully concentrate on the task at hand. My health became worse as I woke up late due to not getting enough quality sleep at night. It also made me want some sugary drinks more than when I was sleeping well. Moreover, sleeplessness makes me make an excuse not to exercise as I still feel tired.

These are some tricks that work for me to eat well, move more, and sleep better that you also can try!

• Shower with warm water before sleep
• Lower the light in your room before sleep
• Make sure that there has no light to distract you while sleeping
• Drink melatonin-rich milk before bedtime
• Start your day with a healthy meal
• Avoid buying unhealthy food or snacks into your house
• Do some exercise to start your day
• Move or stretch your body when you sit more than 20 minute
• Walk or bike instead of using a car
• Stop making an excuse not to exercise when you can do a short exercise in your room!
• Drink more water instead of drinking sugary drinks
• Try to wake up and sleep at the same time

Have a good relationship with yourself by prioritizing your basic needs to live your life to the fullest. You can choose whether to take care of your health now or pay for medical treatment expenses in the future!