Chichester Wellbeing can lend a hand to those struggling

We wouldn’t mind guessing that 2020 didn’t pan out as you had predicted on New Year’s Day last year. Plans for the year gone awry, resolutions stretched or broken, routine out the window.

Challenging, unprecedented, lonely, distanced: just some of the words that could be used to sum up last year.

It is widely reported that mental health has suffered as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, and this has had a knock-on effect on our health and wellbeing.

The team at Chichester Wellbeing are here to help with free 1:1 advice and support for anyone over the age of 18 who either lives and/or works in the Chichester District.

Covering mental wellbeing, work-life balance (including working from home), healthy eating, exercise, menopause, smoking cessation, alcohol awareness, pre-diabetes and home energy, the team of experienced Wellbeing Advisors can help you make small changes to your lifestyle which will make a big difference to your wellbeing.

Healthy eating and exercise

Have you made a resolution this year? Maybe to lose a few pounds, do more exercise or improve your health? These common resolutions can be hard to stick to when life starts to throw us some curveballs or we’re back into our daily routine.

Chichester Wellbeing’s nutritionally trained Wellbeing Advisors can show you how some simple dietary and lifestyle changes can improve your physical and mental health.

Did you know that mood, stress, sleep, and immunity are just a few aspects of your health affected by what you eat?

Offering both 1:1 support as well as group sessions, Chichester Wellbeing can help you make and stick to resolutions around healthy eating and exercise. Their tailored advice will support you to make small changes to your diet and physical exercise that will result in greater health and wellbeing, with lasting results.

Alcohol awareness

Making small changes to alcohol consumption can make a big difference to your health and wellbeing. Alcohol can have a huge impact, not only on our physical health – with damage to our liver and disruption to our digestion and immune system – but also our mental health.

Contrary to the belief that alcohol can help you relax and assist with feelings of anxiety and depression, it can in fact reinforce these feelings or even add to them.

This January could be a great opportunity to give your body the chance to reset and refresh, either by taking part in Dry January or by just making a concerted effort to cut back over the course of January and the year ahead.

Either way the Chichester Wellbeing Alcohol Service are here to help with four to six free sessions of confidential 1:1 support and advice on helping you reduce your weekly intake in a way that works for you.

Stopping smoking

We all know that smoking is bad for us and recently a team of researchers from Imperial College and King’s College, London, have found that smoking increases the risk of coronavirus - and that smokers were 14 per cent more likely to develop Covid-19 symptoms.

This has given renewed focus on to the importance of giving up smoking for your health.

Besides improved long-term health, those who have quit smoking with the assistance of a dedicated Chichester Wellbeing Advisor have reported that they wanted to give up smoking to save money, for their family’s benefit and because of the anti-social stigma associated with smoking. A Wellbeing Advisor can help you put your lungs first, quit smoking and breathe easier with nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) provided to assist you in making a big difference to your health and wellbeing.

Working from home

Before March last year, there wasn’t a particular culture to work from home in the UK. This changed virtually overnight, and the advice continues to be to work from home if you can.

There can be huge benefits to working from home, including more flexibility, commuting time saved which can be used for exercise, spending time with friends and family, household chores and more.

But there can also be a number of less enjoyable aspects of working from home.

One is that it can feel isolating to not spend time with colleagues in person and, despite Zoom calls and webinars becoming commonplace, it’s not the same as being together.

Another is the difficulty in drawing the line between work and home life. Suddenly you don’t have your commute to decompress, you may be working in your living areas and have reminders of work even during non-work times. It can seem harder to not be ‘available’ to colleagues or clients when you’re in your work environment 24/7.

Whether you are working from home for the first time, a freelancer or self-employed, Chichester Wellbeing can assist with company-wide and 1:1 advice and support for managing stress and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Falls Prevention Service

If you have experienced a fall, feel unsteady on your feet or have concerns about falling in the future, the community-based prevention initiative Wellbalanced for Wellbeing can get you back on your feet and feeling confident again.

Developed with qualified instructors, the classes – both virtual and community-based – are focused on building balance, strength and independence in older people.

Call us for your free 15-minute wellbeing check-in

To help you achieve your best year yet when it comes to your wellbeing in 2021, Chichester Wellbeing are offering a new free 15-minute 1:1 Wellbeing Check In.

In an appointment with a Wellbeing Advisor, you can discuss any lifestyle improvements that you may wish to make.

For this or for more information about any other services mentioned in this article please contact Chichester Wellbeing on 01243 521041 or email [email protected].