My mom is really cool. She's always been a bit alternative and spiritually interested. Even when I was little, she was always focusing on self-improvement and feeling better. She's not a so-called "almond mom", but she has always been very focused on feeling good or feeling better.
In true spirit of her, I wanted to write down the things that stand by me the most.
Take rest
One of the most important things she taught us was to take rest. There was no limit on sleep and rest. We were never called lazy if we would sleep in - on the contrary, we would be encouraged to sleep well and to sleep in while we were growing up.
There was also a lot of room for time for ourselves. Everyone in our family was keen on withdrawing themselves and giving each other privacy. During dinner, we might have been a loud family, but otherwise there was a lot of peace and quiet. We wouldn't bother each other during these solo moments. We all had our own interests.
My mom was also a big advocate of mental health days. Calling in sick was never a problem, because a few days of missing school could never weigh against our health. This was also the case for days when we weren't feeling right mentally. Maybe something had happened that made us feel sad or out of it. Sometimes there was also just a day where I woke up and everything felt a little bit too heavy. We would have to be serious about wanting to take some time off, but this was always okay. We were never seen as weak or "less" because of doing so.
On these mental health days we could choose whether we would want to spend the entire day on the couch or in bed, but my mom often offered to take me out to either the beach or the forest. We would make small-talk or have deep convo's, and spend a lot of time outside. Usually at the end of one of those days, I would feel so much better.
Know what's going in your mouth and get to know how your body feels
My mom spent a lot of time educating herself on food. She struggled with keeping up a healthy weight, and felt sometimes quite fragile because of that. She taught us about the importance of whole fats, and why for example eating full fat yoghurt would make you feel saturated for longer.
I think we had quite a unique eating pattern for a regular family, because we would almost never eat fries or junk food. Not because they were not healthy, but because my parents did not enjoy them very much. They would prefer a Sunday roast over fast food any time.
However, this might seem like we would never eat "bad" stuff, but this was definitely not what it was like. My mom is a sweet tooth and there would always be candies in the house. There was no limit on eating these as well. But because we prioritized eating our main three meals of the day and truly listened to our feeling of hunger, we would never overeat on these candies or cookies. The latter is perhaps the most important, because we would talk a lot about how certain foods would make us feel. How some foods would make us feel sluggish was something that could be casually spoken of.
Talk it out
Unsure whether this could be classified as a wellness practice, but in terms of feeling good, there was a large emphasis on communication. There was a lot of space for arguments and discussions, but we shouldn't be mean about it. No belittling of each other. And whenever something didn't feel quite right, we would talk at great length about it with each other. We would regularly discuss our feelings, why people would do certain things, and get both sympathy and advice.
We are not the family to sweep things under the rug, and I carry this with me throughout every phase of my life. I feel things deeply, which is a good thing, but this makes me someone that has to talk about things in order to let go.