02/25/2026
💞Harmony is built on a strong foundation!
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Harmony is a state of balance among forces that influence and even oppose one another. We encounter conflicts every day, and harmony is our ability to manage our well-being despite the oppositional flow. But if the foundation is weak, achieving harmony is hard.
Foundation building well-being practices gives us the strength to maintain harmony:
✔️Start your day with at least 5-10 minutes of prayer, meditation, and/or movement. If you have more time, great; if not, hold the boundary and give yourself something. Something is always better than nothing. Remember, minimums keep you moving forward.
✔️Limit social media and news consumption. I can't think of anything that creates more disharmony and emotional disruption in our lives. Take the apps off your phone, don't engage in the morning, and give yourself a 5-10 minute hard stop.
✔️Move through your day with purposeful breaks, such as stretching, a quick walk, and mindful breathing. Small, short wellness buffers throughout the day reduce ALL fatigue: physical, mental, emotional, and decisional fatigue. Keep it short and specific.
✔️Eat nourishing foods for sustained energy rather than high-sugar, highly processed foods that cause radical energy swings.
✔️Give yourself a wellness buffer - a transition - from work to home that allows you to discharge stress. Listen to something motivational and uplifting in the car. Stop at the gym or a nearby park for a quick walk if that is available to you. If you have kids' activities, use that time while they are at practice to go for a walk, stretch, or take a short mindfulness break. (See our Life on Mindfulness platform below.) We do not need to sit and scroll through kids' activities when we can thrift and use that time for our own well-being.
✔️Work on reframing to avoid negative thought patterns. Find gratitude in the small things that bring joy, shift perspective, and reduce stress.
✨I'd like to emphasize that foundational truths for our well-being don't change. We do. Our culture and societal norms have shifted, and this is what needs to change.
Read the full wellness wire: aps.edu/wellness
