Five tips for a happier, healthier home life

Jodie Calvert is a personal trainer and class instructor at Virgin Active Australia. She shares her tips for keeping the whole family fit and healthy...

I have been in the fitness industry for close to two decades. Since joining the Virgin Active Australia team 10 years ago, I have since found a passion for movement, balance and wellness. Over the past few years, this has led me on an amazing journey into the learning and instructing of Pilates and yoga.

Outside of work I am a mum of two busy kids. Achieving a work-family balance is no mean feat!

The coronavirus pandemic has been full of many new learnings, but I found that the forced time at home sped up the learning process on what it takes to truly maintain a healthier and happier home life, no matter if you’re in quarantine or not.

I love this Indian proverb that says that every person is a house with four rooms: a physical, a mental, an emotional and a spiritual. Most of us tend to live in one room most of the time, but unless we go into every room every day, even if only to keep it aired, we are not a complete person.

Here are my top five tips for a healthier, happier family life.

1. Daily Routines: With our kids we discovered the importance of adding a little structure to the day. This helps us and the kids understand what is going to happen, and we find that we all feel better when we have things to look forward to throughout the day. It’s also great for us parents, as well. It turns out routines are good for you and surprisingly, freeing.

2. Creating Goals: I also found that creating little goals for each kid led to us acknowledging wins more often and found that achieving these goals benefits everyone. These can be as simple as making beds, helping with clean ups, or completing five minutes of non-stop dance time. 

3. Get Active: Planning activities that are both active, enjoyable and that give you a sense of achievement is important. For me and my kids, living near a National Park, I have found that hiking is not only a way to get us off devices, but also a path into nature, which can be used for moving meditation, exercise or stress release.  

   

   PeopleImages/Getty Images

4. Healthy Eating: Planning and doing food preparation for the day or week helps to nourish your body. Nutrition is such an important component of holistic health, for the body, mind and spirit. If you're able to get everyone involved in some part of the main meal preparation, set up or clean up, this should lead to more structured and positive family interactions.  

5. Switch Off: Lastly put your work away for the evening, switch off and close the door to the study. It is already too easy for work to cross over into your personal life in this day and age, with easy access to mobile phones and computers. “Closing the door to the study” for you could mean shutting down your computer, turning off your email or stashing your phone away. Ensure that you prepare in order to allow time for those other important aspects of your life.

We hope you’re able to take something from this article, but if there’s anything the pandemic has taught us is that you are unique in what works for you to stay balanced and happy, and also to stay active. Let’s evolve your Active today so that you can live happily ever active.

Jodie Calvert’s passion for fitness started at an early age with netball, which she played, coached and umpired in her tenure of the sport. It’s ultimately what led this New Zealander to a career in fitness. She’s now a Personal Trainer, Reformer Pilates, Yoga and Barre Instructor at our Virgin Active Australia Frenchs Forest location with close to two decades of fitness industry experience. Since joining the Virgin Active team 10 years ago, she has found a passion for movement, balance and wellness. When not working, you can find Jodie spending time with her family in the Northern Beaches of Sydney, enjoying the sunshine and relaxing.

This is a guest blog and may not represent the views of Virgin.com. Please see virgin.com/terms for more details.