WELLBEING JOURNAL
A LIFETIME OF NATURE
* WELLBEING * FITNESS * SPIRITUALITY * TRAVEL & OUTDOORS
50 NEW IDEAS TO TRY
escape, explore, relax: a journal for planning your next great experience ADVENTURES
PRINTED IN THE UK
£9.99
CONTENTS ‘Wherever
you wander, follow your own path and try new adventures. who knows what you might discover…
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connect with Nature and your wild side
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The natural world is good for us, both physically and mentally. If you’re searching for inner calm and a bit of headspace, try learning or practising a new skill outside.
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ESSENTIAL GEAR Enhance your outdoor experience with these musthave bits and pieces.
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TEN BRILLIANT WAYS TO ENJOY THE GREAT OUTDOORS From foraging to stargazing, connecting with nature can be life-changing.
A LIFETIME OF NATURE
* WELLBEING * FITNESS * SPIRITUALITY * TRAVEL & OUTDOORS 4
get fit, be active
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Regular exercise to increase your fitness is a win-win situation – it will make you healthier and happier! Even if being active doesn’t come naturally, here are some steps you can take.
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FIT KIT A few essentials that make it easier to get moving.
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TEN MUST-TRY ACTIVITIES FOR YOUR BODY AND MIND Get stronger, stay healthy, have fun and get fit for life!
relax to improve Discover your your wellbeing spiritual self
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Respect the impulse to slow down and simplify, reclaiming the art of relaxation as you do so.
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CALM TREATS Indulge in a handful of luxuries and go-to goodies for the ultimate in everyday rest and relaxation.
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TEN STEPS TO HELP YOU FEEL GREAT Reboot your mind and body with easy-to-try ideas, from morning rituals to night-time sleep sequences. You’ll love the changes you make!
50 GREAT IDEAS!
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What does it mean to be spiritual in the 21st century? Learn to use sound, movement, breath, meditation and nature to find more meaning in your life.
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PEACEFUL PRODUCTS Use our essential toolkit to create a special moment each day for reconnecting with yourself.
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TEN WAYS TO CREATE A SPIRITUAL PRACTICE Learn to connect with yourself and the world around you at a deeper level by taking these ten small steps towards a more enlightened life.
Embrace travel and the outdoors
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There’s nothing that will leave you richer in experiences than a ticket to somewhere you’ve never been before. So take the plunge and plan that adventure.
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TRAVEL ESSENTIALS Pack these globetrotting must-haves for a safe and pleasant journey, wherever you go.
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TEN OUTWARDBOUND IDEAS TO ENRICH YOUR LIFE Plenty of inspiration for expeditions great and small!
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TRY SOMETHING NEW & CHANGE YOUR LIFE
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Photography: Kjell Linder/ Getty
Photography: Artem Beliakin
CONNECT WITH NATURE AND YOUR WILD SIDE
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GO OUT FORAGING 01
D I S C O V E R N AT U R E ' S S E C R E T T R E AT S
NATURE & YOUR WILDSIDE
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oraging is the fine art of hunting through hedgerows, fields, woodlands and along the coast for foods that are safe to pick and eat. There’s something extremely satisfying about collecting wild food for free, but it does require some basic knowledge in order to safely identify the plants. If you’re a first-time forager, stick to easily identifiable crops and see if there’s a local wild-food course you can take – it’s much easier to recognise plants if someone shows you what to look out for, plus
you’ll learn where all the secret foraging hotspots are! Foraging for seaweed is also enjoyable for beginners, and edible seaweeds are easily identifiable. It’s important to note that while foraging is legal in England, collecting is only for your own personal use. If some fruit, for instance, is on private land, always ask permission. Also, try not to forage near roads, where plants are more likely to be polluted. When you’re out collecting remember to take only what you can eat and leave enough behind for wildlife (and other pickers).
Local foraging spots Summer
Autumn
Winter
Photography: Clark and Company / Getty Images
Spring
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G E T F I T, B E A C T I V E through its paces. After all, you’ve only got one body – isn’t it time to make it the best it can be? Working out just once will give you an instant physical boost. And making a commitment to keeping fit regularly is one of the best things you can do for your long-term health. Working out controls your weight, yes, but it also lessens the chances of developing diseases including high blood pressure, diabetes and cancer. It also helps with skin health, builds strong muscles and bones, fights fatigue and improves brain health and memory. It can even lessen pain in chronic conditions. Most studies recommend at least 150 minutes a week of activity to reap the long-term benefits of working out, so consider that a good time to aim for when you begin planning your fitness schedule.
brain boost
Photography: Vgajic / Getty Image
Keeping fit and active has enormous benefits for your mental health, too. Even ten minutes of activity boosts your mental alertness and energy levels, and makes you feel more positive. Regularly keeping fit has also been shown to reduce stress and anxiety. All exercise is good exercise, of course, but aerobic exercise is particularly good for improving your mood, as it pumps blood to your brain, and your brain then gets busy releasing feel-good chemicals called endorphins throughout your body. So exercise improves your health and lifts your mood? You’d be hard-pressed to find a reason not to get up and get moving!
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Photography: Andreas Gucklhorn
Photography: Jeffery J Lin
‘fitness
is meant to be rewarding, and the great thing is that you can shop around until you find a sport or class you love
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If you want to get fitter and more active, think first about your key motivation to get moving, and write down the reasons you want to work out in the pages of your journal. Getting fit should never be about drastic weight loss or unattainable goals. It should be about positive and healthy steps and improvements – gaining strength and flexibility, toning muscles, getting outside more, improving your mood and your sleep patterns.
Photography: Edit Sztazics
set achievable goals Working out isn’t a punishment or gruelling endurance exercise – if it feels like that, you’re doing the wrong sport. Fitness is meant to be fun and rewarding, and the great thing is that you can shop around until you find a sport or a class that you really love. So set yourself positive goals rather than unachievable targets that you’ll feel bad about, and remind yourself of them regularly as you work towards getting healthier. Finding the confidence to try a new sport can also be a big barrier to making your fitness dream happen. Remember that everyone was a beginner once, and that no matter how slow you start in a new discipline, you’re miles faster than anyone who isn’t trying at all. The
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GO CLIMBING 03
G E T A N I N S TA N T B U Z Z A C H I E V I N G Y O U R G O A L S
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G E T F I T, B E A C T I V E
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ooking for a total body workout? Head to your local climbing wall. Climbing can seem intimidating if you’ve never tried it before, but it’s a great beginner sport that will give you strength, stamina, flexibility and rock-hard arm muscles. It’s even been shown to improve brain function. There are two kinds of climbing for beginners to sample. Bouldering involves climbing on low rocks or climbing walls indoors or outdoors, close to the ground and with no ropes or protection. It’s not about gaining a lot of height, but more about solving the problem of how to get to the final climbing hold without falling
off. Bouldering is ideal if you’d like to try climbing but aren’t a fan of heights. Sport climbing is climbing with a harness and a rope, indoors or outdoors, and using the permanent anchors (or ‘bolts’) on set routes to tie yourself to the wall. It’s easy to try both kinds of climbing indoors, on a taster course with an instructor, and once you’re feeling confident you can begin to climb outdoors. And even if you’re regularly climbing, booking in a few technique sessions with an instructor will help you to improve fast. There’s a lot to learn, but climbing is a hugely worthwhile (and sociable) sport to get into. Set your sights high.
Find your local climbing wall
Photography: Bady qb VmYZe
Take a climbing course outside
Book in a technique class Time Time
Day Day 59
Place Place
RELAX TO IMPROVE YOUR WELLBEING
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ave you noticed it too? The deep call to slow down and simplify? If we want to truly flourish and live our best lives, it’s essential that we respect this impulse, this basic human need, and reclaim the lost art of relaxation. We live in a culture that glorifies relentless busyness. Sleep deprivation is worn like a badge of honour. FOMO looms large. It’s a caffeinated, adrenal world where 9-5 is a relic of the past, washing machines beep for our attention, WhatsApps and emails accumulate, social media accounts require feeding and we are more plugged in and overstimulated than ever before. Despite these demands and the toll they take on our health, R&R is often seen as unproductive, pointless or, worse, labelled as lazy. If we keep ignoring this call to slow down, our body will make the decision for us – enforced rest due to supressed immune function, illness, aches, pains, injury, fatigue, burnout or depression. The wise choice is to proactively build relaxation into everyday life, just as we observe the need to eat and drink, and unwind in ways and at times that are convenient and resonant with us personally.
why relaxation is essential
Photography: LeoPatrizi / Getty Images
We need to slow down to get in sync with our own natural rhythms, so we can hear the wisdom innate to the body. When we notice signals of hunger, fatigue, loneliness or anxiety we can take swift action and bring our bodies back to balance with less upheaval.
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Photography: Priscilla Du Preez
Photography: Westend61 / Getty Images
‘many
people mistakenly equate relaxation with stillness. In fact there are plenty of moving practices that are deeply relaxing
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Relaxation aids healing, cleansing and cellular repair, and boosts the immune system. Quiet time gives us the opportunity for reflection and creativity. Mindfulness practices literally rewire the brain, helping us cope better with stress and promote mental health.
Photography: Holly Mandarich / Getty Images
What is relaxation? A state of relaxation is a sense of calm, being at ease, at peace, in harmony, and it has a softening, expansive quality. A relaxation practice is an activity that soothes, nurtures and replenishes. Many people mistakenly equate relaxation with stillness. It can be stillness but it’s not limited to being still and ‘doing nothing’. In fact, there are plenty of gentle moving practices that can be deeply relaxing, and some restorative skills that appear to be doing nothing actually require great concentration and focus. Relaxation can be singing in a choir, a country walk, or figuring out a sudoku, as much as it can be sitting idle in a deck chair. The opposite of relaxation can help us become crystal clear on what we’re aiming for – an
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RELAX TO IMPROVE YOUR WELLBEING
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ecause we spend a significant amount of time in front of screens, it’s inevitable that what we watch, listen to and read will have a huge impact on our ability to feel at peace. It pays to take stock of how you use technology and make sure you’re in control of it, and not the other way around.
Make healthier tech choices Observe how you feel before you check in online. Think about how you choose to plug in – are you on a smartphone, tablet or laptop? Notice how you feel while you’re online as well as afterwards. Notice your stress levels, your mood and your energy.
Clean up your tech – cull any social media accounts that invite you to compare yourself to other people, delete apps that don’t add value to your day, take a look at how much time you devote to apps. Think about the boundaries you need to keep your tech usage healthy. How often will you check in, for what purpose, and for how long?
Be tech savvy Make an effort to bring awareness to your tech use and notice how this benefits your wellbeing. Jot down your observations.
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Photography: Dougal Waters / Getty Images
Jot down tech options that boost your wellbeing, such as TED talks, podcasts, audiobooks, guided meditation, music, nature documentaries, comedies, uplifting movies or send a message to meet up with a friend in real life.
STEP BACK FROM TECH R E T H I N K Y O U R D I G I TA L H A B I T S
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D I S C O V E R YO U R S P I R I T U A L S E L F
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hen embarking on a spiritual journey, it can be difficult to know where to begin, but asking others about their own sense of spirituality can help. Gather friends together and start up a conversation about their beliefs. By sharing our thoughts, we can open our minds to new possibilities and explore what makes each of us unique. Don’t dismiss anyone’s beliefs or judge them; instead ask questions to help you understand and try out ideas that inspire.
Being honest and inquisitive with friends (old or new) is the surest way to find your spiritual tribe. If this seems like too much of a leap, simply ask the questions to yourself. Look inwards and question what you believe in and what’s most important to you. Try a different question each day and you’ll soon get used to this self-reflection. Then ask the same questions again – you may be surprised by how much your answers change in the space of a month, a year or even longer.
Questions to ask yourself Where does my happiness come from? Am I following the crowd or am I listening to my own heart and intuition? What is my deepest intention? Do I listen to my soul attentively? Am I a better person today than I was yesterday? What would I do differently if I knew nobody would judge me?
Photography: Westend61 / Getty Images
What am I most thankful for?
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ASK A QUESTION EVERY DAY LEARN ABOUT OTHERS AND YOURSELF
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PLAN THE ULTIMATE ROAD TRIP TA K E T O F O U R W H E E L S T O S E E N E W S I G H T S
Photography: Michael Clarke
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E M B R A C E T R AV E L & T H E O U T D O O R S
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rab a campervan, a friend and a map and get planning the road trip of a lifetime. Hitting the road in a movable home is an amazing way to explore remote corners of the globe. If you only have a few days to spare, keep it simple by packing a tent in your car, but for a really special adventure, consider a campervan. A rolling home lets you combine luxuries (such as candles, duvets, kitchen sink) with the ability to move around and park up overlooking a new beach or epic mountains every day. This mode of travel really comes into its own on a longer road trip around bigger countries.
When looking through the guidebooks and maps it can be easy to dream about ambitious routes, taking in lots of cities, national parks and beauty spots. But you’ll have much more fun if you aren’t sticking to a packed schedule. The best van trips are slow, with plenty of time to linger in the unexpected special places you find along the way. When you’re ready to roll, seek out a local campervan rental company – many will also let you pick up vehicles at airports in your destination. You could even rent a vintage vehicle, such as a VW camper, for a proper oldschool trip.
Map of my route
Photography: Roman Romaneko
Things to pack
Must-Visi list
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Plan your next great experience From a daily meditation to a round-the-world trip, plan positive life changes with this beautiful journal. Packed with ideas to help you get fit, connect with nature, discover your spiritual side, boost your wellbeing and get outdoors, it’s your guide to great adventures.
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