How to Stay Strong When the World Is on Fire
We’re living in a time of unrelenting velocity—news alerts ping our phones like a war drum, headlines roll in faster than we can process, and social feeds churn with heartbreak and urgency.
Amidst this storm, the most radical act might be this: to care for yourself with deep, grounded intention.
When we are rested, nourished, and grounded, we become steadier agents of change—more able to show up for our communities, our causes, and our conscience. The revolution, it turns out, begins in the kitchen, on the yoga mat, and under the covers.
This is a great time to reinvent and reinvigorate some of our wellbeing routines, not as a luxury, but as a revolutionary strategy. I thought to share with you some frameworks and habits that have been deeply supporting me.
Dr. Rangan Chatterjee is a UK physician and the author of Make Change That Lasts - 9 Simple Ways to Break Free from the Habits That Hold You Back offers a refreshingly simple model: Food. Movement. Sleep. Relaxation. If these four areas are tended to and cared for, everything else starts to realign. I love this, because in an age of information overload around health and wellbeing choices, this simple recipe keeps me on track so I feel more rested, more creative, more at peace and hence better equipped to meet each day’s challenges.
Following are some powerful health-positive habits and tricks to support you, using the four pillars:
Food
Food is medicine. It helps you heal and keeps you resilient. Stick to these simple guidelines and you’ll fortify your body and your mind.
Eat “one-ingredient meals.” That means whole, unprocessed foods: vegetables, fruit, protein, nuts, grains. Cook at home as much as you can.
Find what works for you. Plant-based, carnivore, keto, pescetarian, intermittent fasting—none of these diets work for everyone. Experiment for a month with one variation of diet and see what happens. Do you feel happier, have more energy, or are you exhausted? Your body will tell you what’s best for you.
Treat alcohol, sugar, and fast food like toxins—not forbidden, but not welcomed either.
Don’t keep anything in your house you don’t want to eat. Save your willpower for the outside world.
Drink plenty of water. If you can, consume all your calories by food instead of drinks.
Movement
Movement boosts your mood and averts disease and chronic pain. You need to do two things on a regular basis: get your heart pumping and build your strength.
If you’re overwhelmed by choices—just move. Dance in your kitchen. Walk your dog. Stretch before bed. Anything is better than nothing. Don’t be rendered frozen by the tyranny of options—yoga or pilates; running or walking; weights or resistance; gym membership or online at home—just get out there and do anything.
Build movement into your day. Park farther away. Take walking meetings. Garden. Climb stairs. Make it natural.
Five-minute kitchen workout. While waiting for coffee or tea, do strength training in your pajamas. Try Dr. Chatterjee’s 5 Minute Kitchen Workout or my favorite, The Tibetan 5 Rites, also known as The Fountain of Youth. If you do one of these every day you’ll not only become stronger, but you’ll notice a ripple effect of other positive and healthy choices.
Do what you enjoy. Hate bootcamp? Don’t go. Love dancing? Do that. If it’s fun, you’ll stick with it.
Sleep
Sleep is your body's repair mode. Without it, everything else suffers. Did you know consistent sleep deprivation leads to weight gain, mood swings, overeating, and chronic illness? That extra hour of doom-scrolling costs more than you think. Prioritize sleep hygiene like your future depends on it—because it does.
Here’s how to do it:
Decide when you want to wake up each morning. Then count 8 hours backwards. That is your go to sleep time. For example, if you want to wake up at 6 am, then your go to sleep time is 10 pm.
But don’t stop there. In order to fall asleep, and sleep well through the night, you need one hour before to be in bed and get yourself sleepy. This is your go to bed time. So, if your go to sleep time is 10 pm, then your go to bed time is 9 pm. Use this hour to get your body into sleep mode: climb into bed, read, journal, meditate and turn lights out. If you need 30 minutes to actually fall asleep after lights are out, you have 30 minutes to read or journal. Do not use this time for scrolling. Put your phone somewhere else, preferably in another room.
Set an alarm each day for 15 to 30 minutes before your go to bed time. Let your alarm be your gentle but firm bedtime butler, reminding you to wash your face and exit the land of screens before sleep’s curtain call. For example, if your go to bed time is 9 pm, I set your nightly alarm for 8:30 pm.
Make your morning better by preparing for it the night before. Before any of the above happens, take about 30 minutes sometime in the evening to get ready for the next day, and make your morning easier: wash your dishes, put anything by the door for the morning (your backpack, your computer), put away clothes, make your overnight oats, tidy up. This way, when you wake up in the morning, you are greeted with the feel-good experience of order and ease.
My nightly routine looks like this:
8:00 pm - tidy up, do dishes, review my planner for the next day, prep coffee, lay out next day’s vitamins, make overnight oats, and if it’s the winter, I prep my fireplace so the next morning all I have to do is strike a match.
8:30 pm - shower, wash face and brush teeth
9:00 pm - jump into bed—journal, read
9:45 pm - lights out
10 pm - asleep
Try it for a week. You’ll be amazed at how much better life feels.
Relaxation
Stress has a significant impact on both mental and physical health, potentially leading to a range of issues. Chronic stress can disrupt various body systems, increasing the risk of physical health problems like heart disease, high blood pressure, and digestive issues. It can also negatively affect mental health, contributing to anxiety, depression, and sleep disturbances. Our nervous system needs a break on a regular basis.
Find your own prescription for rest. That means any activity (or inactivity) you find relaxing, that helps you switch off and forget your worries for a while. Then prescribe yourself 15 minutes of this guilt-free rest time each day.
Reframe ‘wasted time’ as rest time. Take advantage of that train journey, delayed appointment or Post Office queue as time for yourself (and resist the temptation to take out your phone). Look out for these moments and seize the opportunity to just stand and stare at the beauty around you.
Use your breath. You can signal to your brain that the saber toothed tiger is not outside the cave. If you take a longer exhale than inhale (inhale a count of three, exhale a count of six, for example), you send a parasympathetic volley to your brain that everything is ok.
Make a list of things that feel restful, enjoyable and easy. Have that list handy so you can support yourself to eddy out of the rat race at a moment’s notice.
Honoring the four pillars of wellness aren’t just lifestyle tweaks—they’re quiet acts of revolution. In a world trying to wear you down, your rest and happiness are resistance. Your nourishment is strategy. Your joy is sacred. Take care, not just so you can survive the storm, but so you can be the calm within it.
Kelly Wendorf is an ICF Master Certified executive and personal coach, published author, spiritual mentor, disruptor, and socially responsible entrepreneur.
As founder of EQUUS® she specializes in the liberation of robust leadership capacities in those who are most qualified — the empathetic, the conscientious, the accountable, the generous, and the kind.
Did you like this essay? Kelly is available for a wide range of services including Coaching, Workshops, The EQUUS Experience®, Retreats, Keynote Speaking and more.
