Physical Wellbeing

''Excellence is not a singular act, but a habit. You are what you repeatedly do."

- Shaquille O'Neal

What is Physical Wellbeing?

Physical activity helps us maintain a healthy headspace which can influence the way we feel and perform mentally. To be successful digital citizens we need to be aware how to balance our screentime with activities that benefit our physical wellbeing. Physical wellbeing does not only mean keeping fit but looking after yourself physically by adopting healthy habits including a balanced diet and getting enough sleep.

Like any set of behaviours, the use of technology can have positive or negative impacts on your wellbeing. Technology can be helpful in maintaining health when used thoughtfully and in moderation.

Physical Wellbeing Challenges

🏆Level 1: Track and monitor your screentime and daily habits

🏆Level 2: Plan and prepare a healthy meal

🏆Level 3: Develop a sleep routine

🏆Level 4: Complete the physical fitness challenges

Healthy Habits and Screentime

Healthy Eating

Sleep for Physical and Mental Health

Exercise for a Healthy Headspace

Healthy Habits & Screentime

It is important to develop healthy habits for balancing screentime including scheduling a variety of activities. Screentime has been linked to increased sedentary behavior. However, the research is unclear how much screen time is too much. What is clear however, is that it is important to keep a healthy balance of online and offline activities in our lives. Ask yourself if you are spending too much time online and develop some strategies that work for you.

Physical Wellbeing Challenge: Level 1 🏆

🤳 Track and monitor your screentime and daily habits. Tracking and monitoring is a great way to gain insight and make positive changes to your habits.

⏱ Create a daily schedule that includes your study schedule and no-screen times.

⏳ Decide in advance how much time you want to spend online, then set a timer to help you stay within that time limit. Try a task focus app.

⌚ Extend: Continue to monitor your screentime using built-in applications on all of your devices. Monitor which devices and apps you are spending large a amount of time. Keep a schedule for entertainment and leisure using technology after getting other chores, tasks and physical exercise done.

Healthy eating

When you think of improving your mental health, you may not think about changing the food you eat, but there is a strong link between what we eat and how we feel!

Eating well can improve your physical wellbeing by giving you more energy and improve your concentration. All helping you be prepared to be a healthy digital citizen.

Physical Wellbeing Challenge: Level 2 🏆

📕 Keep a food diary of everything you eat... it might suprise you! Being mindful of the foods you eat help you form healthy habits.

🍌 Make one small change to your diet by swapping an unhealthy snack or drink with a healthy one.

🍳 Try a new healthy recipe and share with your classmates by posting a photo on the subject forum.

🍴 Extend: Now you have the knowledge of how food can affect your mood and the skills to make healthy food choices develop a meal plan in advance each week. Create a shopping list and prepare for meals/snacks in advance.

Sleep for physical and Mental health

Good sleep is like a mental health superpower! Getting the right amount of quality sleep can give you more energy, improve concentration, help you better deal with stress and take care of your physical wellbeing. Most young people (age between 12-17 years) need between 8 and 10 hours of sleep per night to be at their best.

Physical Wellbeing Challenge: Level 3 🏆

📖 Read the tips for how to manage sleep from the headspace factsheet (right). Count how many of these habits you currently apply. Was it less than half (4)? Do you think you are getting enough sleep?

😴 Choose one of the habits each night to implement and improve your sleep until you have tried them all. Reflect on how this improved your physical and mental wellbeing.

🛌 Track your hours of sleep for a week. Do you think you are getting enough hours of sleep?

💤 Extend: Reflect on the effectiveness of the sleep habits you implemented. Continue with your own before bed routine and habits to ensure you are getting the right amount of sleep.

Exercise for a healthy headspace

Sedentary behaviour is associated with poorer mental health and evidence suggests that increased levels of exercise can positively impact on mood and general wellbeing. Research suggests that regular exercise may increase the level of brain serotonin, a neurotransmitter involved in regulating mood, sleep, libido, appetite and other functions. Exercise can also increase the level of endorphins in the brain which have ‘mood-lifting’ properties.

Australia's physical activity guidelines:

for health benefits young people aged 13–17 years should accumulate at least 60 minutes of moderate to vigorous intensity physical activity every day.
Young peoples’ physical activity should include a variety of aerobic activities, including some high intensity activity. On at least three days per week young people should engage in activities that strengthen muscle and bone.
To achieve additional health benefits young people should engage in more activity – up to several hours per day

Physical Wellbeing Challenge: Level 4 🏆

Watch the interactive video and complete the challenges to become more informed about how to manage your physical wellbeing throughout the day.

💪Strategy 1: Body Breaks - 30 second dynamic stretches to break up screentime.

💪💪Strategy 2: Energy Bursts - 2 minute high intensity challenges and record your results. Try and improve your results over time.

💪💪💪Strategy 3: Schedule in daily physical activity and exercise for at least 60 minutes such as sport, gym, ball games or bike riding.

🏅 Extension: Continue incorporating body breaks and energy bursts when using devices and technology for 30 minutes or more. Record your energy burst results and see if you improve. Schedule in your 60 minutes of daily physical activity everyday.

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