We, translators, prefer to think that we earn our living with brains, not brawn, but we often forget that a sound mind resides in a sound body. To keep our precious brains healthy we should also pay attention to the health of our bodies.

5 tips for wellness:

1. Walking on a daily basis is a good start. Staying all day long in front of a computer will sooner or later take its toll on your health. Aching neck, aching back, aching joints? Sounds familiar? Go for a walk. 5 kilometers a day would improve your fitness and reduce risk of cardiovascular diseases.
   

   Walk!

Don’t like aimless wandering? Take your dog for a walk. Your pet needs exercise just as much as you do. Don’t have a dog? Then make a point of walking everywhere. Meeting with a client? Don’t drive — walk there. Ran out of sugar? Don’t drive — walk to a supermarket or shop.

2. 

   Run!

   If walking bores you out of you mind, run. Running helps strengthen your muscles and maintain your body weight. Doctors may debate if running causes harm or brings benefit to your knee joints, but they do agree that running keeps you fit.

Running is not my cup of tea. With all the packs of homeless dogs flooding my city, running is more of a health hazard than a health benefit. I want to be fit, not to set Olympic records, trying to run away to safety from a swarm of possibly rabid dogs. I prefer exercises.

3. Exercises. “Exercises” is one of the first words I learnt at the age of 5, when I started learning English at school. Starting from the early childhood, we are taught about importance of exercises. Simple moves that anyone and everyone can do will put you on a right track to a healthy life style.

Enter “exercises minutes” into the search bar of your preferred search engine, and you’ll see thousands of pages that offer you programs of 3-minute long, 7-minute long, 15-minute-long, etc. exercises. I believe that even in your packed to overflowing schedule, you can dedicate 15 minutes to your health.

Excercise!

Sometimes it is difficult to stay motivated. Sometimes you will have to force yourself to go on with this 5/10/30-minute routine. When you start feeling that exercises are more of a burden then a release, apply 1-minute rule. Do only one exercise for only one minute. You can’t get tired if you do sit-ups for only 1 minute. You can’t get bored if you do push-ups for only 1 minute. It is not hard to stretch for only 1 minute.

4. Doing sport is one of the greatest ways to stay fit and healthy. Trainings help you stay active, strengthen your body and build your character.

Do Sports!

Taking yoga lessons, aerobics, gymnastics, boxing or eastern martial arts will provide you not only with a well-developed program to put you into good shape, but will also teach you such important things like setting a goal and working towards it.

Sport also engrains good habits. Doing sports you acquire good eating habits, and you learn to stay away from alcohol, drugs, etc.

5. When your long and rich in activities day finally comes to an end, it’s time to go to sleep. Sleep is an essential part of life. Sleep deprivation leads to deterioration of health and overall wellbeing of person. When it comes to sleep it is quality, not quantity, that matters. Improving your sleeping habits will also improve your wellness. There several simple ways to improve your sleeping environment and make sure your sleep is more peaceful:

• Keep the noise down. If you live near a busy road, railway station or airport, it is not always possible to eliminate or somehow mask the noise. If moving to a quieter area is out of question, then earplugs may help.
  

  Sleep!

• Keep air in your room fresh. Your room should be well ventilated. If your room is well aired and room temperature is normal (not too hot and not too cold), you find it easier to fall and stay asleep.
• Make sure your bed is comfortable. Up until last year I slept on the bed and matrass I inherited from my grand-parents. My back was hurting so much that I felt twice my age. Last February I made an unprecedented decision to throw away my bed. It cost a lot of money to buy new bed and modern matrass, but my back and joints felt amazing when I changed my “sleeping equipment”. I consider purchase of a new bed and matrass as a very good and reasonable investment.

No matter which kind of activity you choose to keep yourself healthy and fit, remember that the hardest thing to do is to get off the couch.

If you found this article interesting, you might also want to read Healthy Translator: 7 Tips to Stay Emotionally Healthy.