Good habits from around the world to boost your day

Being global citizens has quite a few pluses. One of the best? That we can plunder other countries’ good habits and make them our Aussie own. Here are our top five.

The day-to-day grind can be, well, tedious.

Even in Australia, the lucky country, there are endless daily challenges and the ups and downs of work, family, health, parents-in-law and… life in general.

Which means we’re up for anything that brings a little unexpected sunshine into our every day.

Incorporating good habits into our daily schedule allows us to take control of the steering wheel of our life, and ritualise good behaviours that make us feel well, according to psychologist Dr Marny Lishman.

“Life throws us stressors without even asking, but consciously partaking in particular actions that facilitate wellness helps with a feeling of control and balancing the tougher moments out,” Prof Lishman says.

So we’ve trawled the world for the best, most enviable, healthiest habits we can adopt.

Turns out there’s plenty of globally inspiring goodness to go around – here are our favourites.

1. Nordic walking

There’s a lot to love about Finland — think epic landscapes, saunas, reindeers, lakes (it has around 188,000 of them) and happy locals (the country is often voted the happiest in the world).

And then, there’s Nordic walking.

Trust the Finns to come up with activity that takes your fitness up a notch by giving you an achievable full-body workout in the great outdoors.

A recent Canadian study even found Nordic walking (think hiking with specially designed walking poles) improves functional capacity, or the ability to do everyday tasks, in heart disease patients.

“Nordic walking engages core, upper and lower muscles while reducing loading stress at the knee, which may result in greater improvements in functional capacity,” study lead investigator Jennifer L. Reed explained.

2. No desk eating

And no we’re not talking about gnawing on your “actual” desk.

We mean no to bringing your knife and fork and microwave meal, soggy sandwich or last night’s leftovers to aforenamed desk to eat.

It may seem like a great time saving idea, but folks, this is tres uncool.

We’ve snuck in ‘tres’ because in République Française, eating at your desk is forbidden.

The French labor code actually prohibits workers eating at the workplace.

They encourage a change of scenery, and pace. To that we say oiu. And Viva La France.

3. Turkish baths

We love a little history. And feeling good. And with Turkish baths or “hammams”, you get both.

Around for centuries, the first hammams were in Arabia and it was the Turks who made them popular by allowing access for all.

When those nomadic Ottomans took Constantinople (now Istanbul) from the Romans in 1450, the Turk Ottomans cleverly combined the Roman bathing habits with their own.

Hammam, which originally meant the public steam room, and the deep cleansing ritual which takes place inside it, is said to expel toxins from the body as well as leaving skin feeling super smooth.

4. On yer bike

Not only famous for their windmills, wooden shoes and tulips, the Dutch have taken bike riding to whole new art form, making 28 per cent of all trips by bicycle, about 17.6 billion kilometres a year.

That’s about three kilometres per day per person. No wonder they’re a healthy-looking bunch.

According to recent cycling data from the Netherlands Institute for Transport Policy, 80 per cent of people who use bikes for virtually all their trips exceed the minimum advised amount of weekly exercise (150 minutes a week) just from everyday pedal power.

“It’s well documented that physical activity is an antidote to stress; helping us burn off the stress chemicals but also giving us some lovely endorphins to boost our mood,” Dr Lishman says.

Dig out your cycles peeps.

5. Perfect the power nap (in public)

Thought the southern Europeans were the only ones who liked to “siesta”? Think again.

In Japan, napping in public is socially acceptable.

In fact, they even have a name for it – inemuri, which translates to “sleep while being present”.

It might seem contradictory but the Japanese work (and study) so hard that the tolerance for people falling asleep during meetings, classes and even social gatherings is widespread in Japanese culture.

Current research seems to agree this is one good habit.

“Little moments of resting can help relax, recharge and reset us — just try and keep it under 25 minutes,” Dr Marny says.

Written by Liz McGrath.

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