From Vegetables to Attitude

The other day I was looking at the term 5 a day, meaning to eat 5 serves of fruit and vegetables a day. I came across an article that was asking did you get your 5 a day only they weren't talking about fruit and vegetables. What they meant was did you do 5 things today that would improve your mental state?

I thought that it was a great idea to apply the "did you get your 5 a day" to other things. Some things that I thought of were:

• Keep good attitudes
• Have a positive mental attitude
  
• Improve your mental state
• Enhance personal relationships
• Improve or keep good health
• Move ahead in your field of work

Undoubtedly, you might be able to think of some others.

It takes 30 days for an action to become a habit. If one was consciously aware of doing 5 specific things in the area they wanted to work on for a month, those actions would probably have become automatic by then. Once things become automatic, they become a part of the normal fabric of our lives, without having to be conscious of them.

Pick an area that you would like to work on. Find 5 things that you could do today that would improve it. Put it into practice. Here is an example of some things that could be done to improve mental state.

• Get adequate sleep
• Do some daily exercise
• Watch your diet - don't eat junk food
• Eat plenty of fruit and vegetables
• Drink plenty of water
• Smile at people
• Compliment someone
• Find 5 things to be thankful for
• Do something specific to relax
• Laugh

Well that is 10 suggestions. What I noticed as I wrote them is that they would fit equally well in the improve or keep good health category. There will always be overlap with things like this. It really doesn't matter. The important thing is to be conscious of doing something that will improve things for you in some way.

Have fun and enjoy yourself,
Jocelyn