How to Create a Personalized Wellness Routine That Actually Works

Establishing a wellness routine that puts your health front and center can be absolutely life-changing. There is practically limitless information out there that gives you lists and items to create your own personalized wellness routine, but this abundance of guidance can easily become overwhelming. Afik Group’s CEO, Yaacov Afik, learnt through experience that the search for peak wellness evolves as we grow, and that understanding oneself is the crucial first step.

Today, we celebrate and understand individuality more than ever. We are all different, so shoehorning ourselves into preset wellness routines is a bit of a shot in the dark. Then, when the plan is not a fit for someone, it may discourage them further. The first step in how to personalize a wellness routine is to understand yourself as deeply as possible.

The question is how? Fear not, we are here to simplify things for you and highlight considerations that are often overlooked.

For clarity, we have divided our advice into three key pillars of wellbeing. Physical, mental, and spiritual.

The most important thing to note is that well-being is not a race. It is not some bar you have to reach or a competition you need to win. You are not to blame if modern media makes you feel you are falling short, and that the challenge is a mountain whose summit you cannot even see.

The path to your effective wellness routine is not one measured in hours at the gym or the absence of stress in your life. It is about being at peace with your existence and confronting its joys and pitfalls with an honest perspective of who you wish to be. More often than not, you are closer to being that person than you think.

Pillar I – Physical Wellbeing

“Movement is more important than posture. To ease the ill-effects of being sedentary or working at a desk, the key is to get up every hour, move about for five minutes or so and put motion through your joints. This will combat things like back pain more effectively than trying to keep your back straight. The rule of thumb is ‘Rest is rust. Motion is lotion.’”- Ben Thompson [Founder, Chiang Mai Osteopathytrained at British College of Osteopathic Medicine]

The little routine that always matters most – Showing up

This is by far the most underrated and unsung part of bettering yourself physically. No huge leaps in mindset, technique or stamina needed. Goals and expectations can be daunting – the remedy is to just show up and keep it simple. You’re a beginner? Do a 30-minute walk, three times a week. If that’s too much, it’s okay. Shorter walks or whatever suits you. Maybe you want to hit the ground running and shock your system a bit with a challenging workout. So be it. It doesn’t matter what or how much you do. Just show up and your body will react and get stronger.

Establishing “showing up” as part of, or even your entire routine, forms a base for further progress and something to always fall back on – the simplicity of the approach also allows you to be conscious of building a routine that consists of essential, rather than superfluous, actions.

Consult a professional if you’re living with ongoing or chronic physical issues

When it comes to physical issues that time is not mending, consulting a professional such as a doctor or an osteopath can be a game changer. Their guidance can be a core part of a routine that opens further possibilities and motivation.

Let’s use stiffness or lack of mobility in the shoulder as an example. A medical professional will examine the issue and may prescribe targeted at-home physiotherapy such as bar hangs (this is a hypothetical example only, do not attempt without professional guidance). This can be where your routine begins, with a simple daily exercise that reduces and possibly even eliminates your issues, paving the way to further progress.

Understanding common exercise & fitness misconceptions

Grasping the following will help you look beyond preconceptions of what a physical healthroutine needs to look like to be effective, and possibly minimize risk:

- You don’t need to sweat excessively to have a good workout. Yes, sweating is a sign that you are pushing yourself, but consistency (“showing up” as stated above) matters more than workout intensity in the long run. If you’re not the type who wants to push the envelope every time, know for a certainty that you don’t need to do this to achieve lasting significant physical progression.

- Gains don’t necessarily come from pain. Now, in common gym parlance, “gains” means muscle growth, which is linked with multiple sets targeting muscle groups. Increases in strength, on the other hand, don’t require as many sets. According to ‘Men’s Health’, even one set targeting a muscle group each week will bring on observable increases in strength. This also means if you’re just after a more active lifestyle, and not so much the gains, you don’t have to live with muscle tissue pain to enjoy a healthier body.

- Healthy sleep is not aggregate or cumulative. By this we are quashing the idea that you can catch up on lost sleep and still be healthy. The most beneficial sleep cycle is one that consistently delivers adequate sleeping duration, quality, and period. Basically, a solid undisturbed 7-9 hours that starts and ends around the same time each day. This should be part of any daily wellness habits forever.

Pillar II – Mental/Emotional Wellbeing

"Almost everything will work again if you unplug it for a few minutes, including you."- Anne Lamott (Novelist whose “unwavering compassion…earned her the sobriquet ‘the people’s author.’” As per the Encyclopedia Britannica)

Mental wellbeing can often be the toughest space to approach and understand, namely because most people will not know that their complex and layered mental state can be analyzed through their actions and everyday choices. There is no shame in not knowing – we are not commonly taught how to identify negative and positive signs of mental health, but doing so is invaluable when looking to establish a mental health routine.

You can start by paying attention to the following:

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The areas of life that cause you stress and how you cope with that stress

• You can then see whether these coping mechanisms are healthy and effective or not.

• Healthy coping mechanisms include physical exercises, meditation, meaningful conversation with loved ones or therapists, hobbies, breathing exercises, and more – the effectiveness of each depends on the person.

• Unhealthy coping mechanisms include binge eating, screen/device addiction, procrastination, problem avoidance, isolation, emotional outbursts, and self-harm.

- Your overall emotional state/mood

o It’s easy to miss a big shift in your mood when it occurs over a long period of time while you’re busy going about your daily life. You can almost unconsciously accept it and carry on.

o Try to ask yourself on the simplest terms, “how do I feel?”

▪ Are you content and positive or are there feelings of sadness, anger, or anxiety?

▪ Be mindful of the extent of any negative emotions – if they are deep-seated and ever-present, professional help/guidance is recommended.

- How much of your time do you spend in the present moment vs being distracted

o Mindfulness is very important – if you spend a lot of time thinking about the past or the future, a routine that helps you live in the moment will help.

o Excessive screen/device time (doom scrolling) erodes mindfulness.

Pillar III – Spiritual Wellbeing

"The soul always knows how to heal itself. The challenge is to silence the mind."- Caroline Myss (American author, speaker, and teacher in the fields of human consciousness, spirituality, mysticism, health, energy medicine, and medical intuition)

For this pillar, we’d like to speak of spirituality in terms of the human spirit, not religion or dogma. We are referring to the individual essences that are unique to each of us, from our values and principles to the things that stir our reasons for being.

Like our physical and mental lives, the spirit also needs to be fostered throughout life for us to feel fulfilled and whole. There is no script or standard for this; your spiritual well-being may be intrinsically linked to your physical health or the state of your mind (more on that later), The most important thing is to understand yourself spiritually, which can be tricky for some people. If it doesn’t come naturally for you, that’s perfectly normal and okay.

Spiritual contemplation is not broadly taught, but you can teach yourself

It doesn’t take long for life to start going by in a blur, leaving so little space for personal introspection. For many, questions such as “What are my values and purpose?” will feel very unusual. Hence, there may not be any apparent value in taking the time to turn your mind’s eye on yourself, to ask these questions, to see your life for what it is, and to truly reflect on things at a deep level.

Connecting with yourself spiritually is a little like shifting your diet to a healthier set of foods. It will feel unusual, and you won’t see any real benefits at the start, but when the nutritional value takes hold, the positives are clear as day.

To foster spiritual health, build a simple routine around:

- Reflecting on your core values and the things that you feel give your life real purpose. Allow your thoughts on this to form unguided by the expectations around and within you. Let your mind answer honestly. If you feel unsure at first, don’t force it and think more on the subject next time. You can do this for as little as 5 minutes per day – just make sure that’s all you do for those minutes.

- Adopt the spiritual health practice of viewing the world with compassion, especially for yourself. We are all imperfect, so expectations of perfection from you or others does nothing but make our lives harder. Even for those with a stern or stoic outlook, self-compassion has its place.

- Open consideration for practices such as meditation or journaling. Their abundance does make them seem like trends, but popularity is also a strong indicator ofeffectiveness. Give them an honest try, some might not work, but some likely will fit. Meditating does not have to be linked to a belief, religious or otherwise.

Try to avoid the following pitfalls on your quest for spiritual wellness:

- Thinking that spiritual wellness means always being calm and “enlightened.” We wouldn’t need spiritual growth if our lives were devoid of doubt, anger, fear, and frustration. Don’t push those feelings away – it does one much more good to recognize their existence.

- Associating spirituality with isolation or a retreat away from loved ones. Sometimes, solitude and time alone is just what the doctor ordered, but it is nigh on impossible to thrive when you are constantly alone.

- Letting your quest for spiritual growth take too much of your time and/or be an escape from responsibilities. All in moderation, as they say. It is easy to get lost during the navigation of one’s own spirit because it’s an invigorating process. Remember that the purpose of understanding your own spirit is to apply what you learn to life – so don’t shrink away from life, that’s where all the good things happen.

How the Three Pillars are Connected – Not What You Think

You will find a lot of guidance that pinpoints one specific starting point that will work – get in the gym and your mental wellbeing will follow, start by meditating and you will have the peace of mind to pursue wellness in the other parts, or mindfulness exercises that will elevate your days. For some these will be true, but when a claimed starting point doesn’t work for you, it can be disheartening.

Yaacov Afik has cultivated a passion for wellness that inspired him to build wellness facilities and services at Caesar Projects. He understands better than most that taking each activity or practice for what it’s worth to you is the most important thing. Trying things without expectations will eventually lead to something that resonates with you and that is the first step in how to personalize a wellness routine.

No doubt each of the pillars are connected. when you start to benefit from a practice that suits your needs, you’ll find room for a routine as big or as small as you like. Take the time to follow our advice above, get to know where you stand physically, mentally and spiritually and the most important first step is done.