The first day of February is upon us and my goodness, depending on where you are in the country there is a definite sniff of Spring in the air! The month of love they say – bit cliché but perhaps the month of self-love or self-care feels more appropriate – less commercial – less fake – although flowers would be nice…. Sorry I digress!

I absolutely know it’s the right thing to do – getting more natural daylight, not staring at a screen all day long, sitting at a desk for hours at a time. I even closed my home office shutters earlier to block out the stream of sunlight so that I wasn’t a mere white shadow on a Teams call!

So, as I sat indoors in my kitchen on a lunch break, doing the obligatory scan on social, a post popped up warning me starkly about ‘7 sneaky habits that are slowing ruining your life’ … harsh! Nice easy visuals, a quick read and all made sense, particularly the one that was screaming at me to get outdoors. A major cause of depression, the article told me, is sitting inside under fake light and not getting enough sun or nature on your body.

So I did just that. I spent 20 minutes in the garden weeding, wandering, deadheading, and generally soaking up the warmth of the early afternoon. It was a tonic.

I know it’s not Spring just yet, but take that time to move, leave your desk, get outside – particularly if you are a home worker. Adjust your mindset, rethink your routine, make an effort to stop and reflect - recharge. What better place to do all of those things than in the great outdoors?

What habits will you drop in your quest for a self-love February? What habits will you adopt? As always, we invite you to join our conversations on LinkedIn or checkout our website – we’d love to share what we do with you. We help people thrive at work after all.