Top tips for making changes to improve your health and wellbeing

Acknowledge worries: The physical and emotional impact of looking after people is real. It’s okay to acknowledge this and ask for help. Giving yourself permission to feel the way you do, use the self care strategies that you know work for you and try new ones using the MAP Planner.

Be aware of motivation: Our motivation to support our health and wellbeing may change hour by hour, minute by minute depending on the situation. Being aware of this can help us understand why we do the things we do… and maybe don’t do the things we know we should be doing. Responding to ourselves, and others with compassion and empathy that change is difficult and complex.

Think small: Effective and sustainable change is achieved by thinking about even the smallest behaviours that are required. Its better to succeed at something small than fail at something big. The small successes add up to big successes over time.

Be aware of the world in which we live: Our environment prompts us into certain behaviours- often we are not aware of it. We need our environment to work in our favour and make it easier to do the things we want to do for our health and wellbeing. Think about prompts, e.g. notes on the doors, prompts on our phones, reminders, visual and motivational cues that are triggering us into certain things, and how we can use these to support our new behaviours. Doing this frees up our brain to deal with other things.

Complete the MAP Planner: Use the MAP planner to work out the specific changes that are needed at work and at home to support your health and wellbeing. Develop a plan about what you are going to do to make those changes. Keep it somewhere you will see it regularly to remind you what you have planned.