Annie's Daily 5 Essentials

With the days ever shortening at the moment as we head towards the winter solstice, I think it's even more important to banish those winter blues! A few years ago I came up with my own distilled principles for living life well and with greater satisfaction. Forget complicated life 'rules', or philosophies, gargantuan 'to do' wish lists, diets or finite 3-month 'health kick' regimes. You'll finish them, go 'yay!' for a week or two, then go back to the way you were before. Years ago I started to analyse what my definition of a satisfying life actually was, and then I stripped it right back and pared it down to the absolute basics. So I came up with my own simple approach - entitled "The Daily 5" - which I have written on a whiteboard in my office at all times:

Annie's Daily 5 Essentials

1. Laugh
2. Exercise - preferably outdoors
3. Be Creative
4. Learn Something New
5. Eat Well

What it means is that no day can truly be a good one unless I have wholehearted done all of these five!

Laugh. Find someone to share a joke with, or, if you can't, think up something funny yourself. Being amused by something energises us and relaxes us for many minutes after we've first thought about it.

Exercise. Make sure you get outdoors for exercise, daily, in order to feel the rays on your face and get the dose of vitamin D we all need on our skin. A day inside is a day wasted, in my opinion.

Be creative. Our brains are naturally creative anyway, but make sure you take time to think laterally - just do something off your own back for its own sake - and put pen to paper. Doodle. Wander. Ponder.

Learn something new. All it takes is a bit of time away from the daily grind to read a book or come to terms with some idea or principle. Your mind is a great thing, but it too needs to be fed and exercised to be kept fit and agile.

And finally, eat well. I don't do diets but I don't eat a great deal of junk food either. Why starve and then gorge? Treat your body to nice wholesome things (and predominantly whole foods) and it will in turn treat you well over the years. My lifestyle approach now means that I don't mind taking the time to cook everything from scratch.

Just kinda basic really! These are my principles for a good day, and so a good life...what are yours??

Annie