Last week we looked at the bucket of rest; this week’s topic is the bucket of nourishment, which includes food, water, and physical touch.
Every parent knows what a hungry kid looks like because it shows in the way they speak (or yell) and how they behave. In fact, “hangry” is an actual word in the dictionary now. So it’s probably not a surprise that the final bucket includes food.
Have you also considered the importance of water to your wellbeing? Researchers have found drinking just 4 ounces of water can help calm anxiety. When we are dehydrated it becomes quite challenging to perform basic functions, let alone live our strengths well.
But there’s another area of nourishment our bodies need—physical touch. It’s why hospitals have volunteers hold babies in the NICU and why so many single people (who live alone) adopted pets during the COVID lockdown. Did you know that a hug and even a shoulder squeeze from a trusted friend is enough to release feel-good hormones in your body?
Here are five questions to ponder about our nourishment buckets.
For context: In April 2022, I started a series exploring five different areas of our wellbeing. I like to call them “buckets,” because it helps us visualize a full bucket as contributing to our wellbeing, whereas an empty bucket suffers wellbeing.
The wellbeing framework I’m using can be found at slathy.com. It is based on what I’ve found we absolutely cannot survive without, and what we need to not just survive, but also thrive.
