Dry July is the perfect mid-year health kick, with participants reporting better sleep, more energy, increased productivity and of course, no hangovers.
Written by guest Bondi Beauty Contributor Luke McLeod, founder of Soul Alive.
Founded in 2007, Dry July is the concept of giving up Alcohol, and it’s one of the best things you can do for your health with Harvard Health listing, “liver disease, breast cancer and a higher risk of depression, anxiety, and addiction“ as some of the nasty side effects of excessive alcohol consumption.
Consider our favourite healthy activities to take up while you are skipping alcohol this month.
Mindfulness Meditation
Far from “woo-woo”, recent research in PLOS Medicine has found that mindfulness exercises, such as meditation “may reduce anxiety, depression, and stress, increasing well–being.”
Healthline lists, “enhanced self-awareness and increased strength and endurance of attention,” as just some of the benefits of meditation and a study published in the National Library of Medicine reports meditation has the potential to lower blood pressure.
Meditation is also endorsed by Katy Petty, Paul McCartney and Oprah Winfrey among others. For Eva Mendes, “Meditation really helps create not only a sense of balance… but serenity and kind of a calm state of mind.”
Meditate with Australia’s Favourite Mindfulness Coach and founder of online meditation studio Soul Alive, Luke McLeod.
Luke has created meditation classes that introduce meditation in a convenient and relatable manner so that you can leverage the benefits of meditation to achieve a mentally clear and emotionally calm and stable state.
Online Workouts
With lockdowns across the state, online workouts are here to stay.
Workout from the comfort of your own home by streaming live or recorded workouts. Paddington based yoga and fitness studio Flow Athletic has you covered providing premium on-demand workout videos by fitness and yoga experts on FlowAthletic TV.
Keeping active is imperative for your physical and mental health, with regular exercise of at least 30 minutes per daylowering the risk of obesity, type 2 diabetes, and high blood pressure.
With 200+ workout videos and the option of committing to goal based training programs, Flow Athletic offers Strength, HIIT, Cardio, Yoga, Cycling, Pilates, Barre and Mindfulness classes direct to you.
Reading
Read your way through lockdowns with Healthline listing improved brain connectivity, increased vocabulary, comprehension and empathy as some of the benefits of regular reading.
Reading might even make you smarter with research published in National Library of Medicine reporting, “data demonstrate time and again that print exposure is associated with vocabulary, general knowledge, and verbal skills even after controlling for abstract reasoning abilities.”
Unless reading on a kindle, reading will reduce your screen time dramatically and it is the perfect before bed activity.
Blue light from smart devices disrupts your body’s ability to prepare for sleep because it blocks melatonin, the hormone that makes you sleepy.
Stock up on some paperbacks to rack up some reading mileage and get you through dry July.
Art
The verdict is in, DIY and at home Art is one of the best new pastimes that your future self will thank you for.
Pinterest is full for inspiration for at home Art activities from colouring-in to splatter paintings, collage and Paper Mache.
Artists have been creating Art as a form of self-expression for centuries with Art even being used as a form of therapy to aid with self-discovery, process feelings, reduce stress and boost self-esteem.
Being creative can also help focus the mind and can have a meditative effect especially if you become fully immersed in the activity of making reaching a state of flow.
Self-Care
Self-care is anything you do to take care of your physical, mental, and emotional health and finding what’s right for you is key.
Some of our favourite self-care activities include at home facials, yoga and walking through nature for their soothing and regenerative effect on the mind and body.
Self-care can also focus on refraining from certain activities such as limiting your time spent on Instagram or Facebook and focusing your energy on self-compassion. Daily self-care rituals can also heal burnout, anxiety and stress according to LA based wellness expert Kesey Patel.
Luke McLeod has become one of Australia’s most popular thought leaders in mindfulness seen him build a wonderful, mindful community all around the world and meditation. For over 16 years he has practiced and trained in a variety of different meditation techniques including, Vedic, Kundalini, Zen, Vipassana, and Mindfulness. The ability to make meditation relatable and enjoyable in today’s modern world has seen him build a wonderful, mindful community around the world.
He is the founder of Soul Alive, Australia’s first dedicated virtual meditation studio, and is the host of the popular podcast ‘Show Me Your Soul’.Working closely with athletes, celebrities, and executives, along with global brands including AMEX, IAG, and Lululemon – shows his ability to harness mindfulness practices in the context of a fast-paced, modern life.
