Speaker #0Hi, welcome to The Pulse, the podcast where we explore the heartbeat of life and work. I'm Julie, your host, and I'm thrilled to have you join me on this journey. Every two weeks, I will bring you a regular dose of inspiration, practical tips, and regular stories about personal development, wellness, and career growth. Whether you're looking for motivation, fresh perspective, or just a reminder that you're not alone, you are in the right place. So welcome and let's dive in. Hello, hello. Happy New Year. This is our first episode of 2026. I can't believe already we are in the new year. As you can see, we have a few changes in this new year. First of all, I have a new logo. with new colors but also you may have heard already we have a new intro and we will have also a new outro the purpose is not to make it longer the purpose was to help me reduce the amount of editing I have to do and to make it also more professional in some ways so those are the small changes that I've made at the end of last year and I'm looking forward to doing more changes in 2026 and to evolve this podcast even further. But today, the goal is not to talk about specifically about what's coming next with this podcast, but the goal is to talk about wellness, because I would really like 2026 to be a year of wellness for myself personally, but I think it's a good topic also for many people. And let's... deep dive a little bit into what is wellness exactly, what can we do about it, because we also hear a lot about the topic. So let's have a bit of a deep dive. So first of all, I spent some time in the last few days reviewing what the word wellness means, because automatically what comes to my mind when I think wellness is I almost think mindfulness, yoga, slow living, this type of things. But I don't think it's the only thing it encompasses. And actually, when deep diving in it, I found that there is more around wellness than those three or this idea of automatically being linked to this mindfulness type of topics. But actually, there is a different dimension of wellness. The first one, we know it well, it's about physical wellness. The second as well, it's about emotional wellness. The third is mental wellness. Then we have social wellness, spiritual wellness, occupational wellness, financial wellness, and last but not least, environmental wellness. So what does each of them mean and where do they come from? what's behind it and how... Can we use them intentionally or how can we think intentionally toward them in 2026 is what I would really like to review and discuss and try to see how this fits into New Year's, not automatically resolution, but more of a way of living and a way of seeing the world in this year. So the first one for me is almost... the easiest is the physical wellness. It's maintaining a healthy body through movement, nutrition, sleep, and medical self-care. So when I said it's easy, it doesn't mean it's easy to put in place, but it's actually easy to understand what needs to happen. So we have, of course, as I mentioned, yoga, stretching, etc. But as it mentioned as well about sleep, about nutrition, about self-care. I think it's important that this physical wellness encompass everything related to your body and should be very much taken into an importance, right? Very often when we get a bit older, maybe we don't go to the doctor right away when something goes wrong or we are okay with sleeping less either because we have a little one or because work is... intense on many other reasons and of course if you have a little one you have to wake up in the middle of the night trust me i have many friends that do and tell me it's a it's a difficult timing for them but it's important to find a way to rest and to recharge and to let your body have this moment of yeah, regenerating almost itself. So what can we do in 2026 about it, right? For me, I definitely need to fix sleeping. I do not sleep well at all already in the first place and make sure I put the right intention behind sleeping. So making it potentially a goal or something that needs to be a priority over some other topics needs to be taken into consideration. Something with nutrition, I would definitely like to improve it. And maybe in one of the episodes in the future, I'll bring someone on who knows more than me about nutrition. But it's ensuring that you fuel your body with the right thing. And it's not about fueling less, but it's about fueling better, actually. Very often we hear people, I hear colleagues wanting to do diet or any other things. And I get where it's coming from. But at the end of the day, a diet doesn't mean automatically eating less. It could be just about eating differently and ensuring that your body is fueled properly with the right things at the right time of the day. And I'm not perfect. And so for me, in regards to this physical wellness, I know those are the two topics that I need to take care of. I definitely do a lot of... Strength training, a lot of walking. I need to do better with yoga, but overall, I do have a healthy regular exercise routine. But my sleeping and my diet are not the best. So it needs to be more in the forefront over some other goals that I have. And that means that I have to create, first of all, the habits at the beginning. and then second of all, creating a boundary linked to that wellness. So maybe for those pieces, for example, with the sleeping, that means sleeping earlier, that means creating a routine so that I sleep better at night. I have to figure it out. I think it's set in stone, but definitely something that will be on my plate in 20 minutes. The second. wellness topic that I mentioned is emotional wellness. So what do we mean by emotional wellness? It's the understanding and managing emotion in a healthy way. And that is not easy when you're an emotional person or it's not easy in some context. So it's about practicing self-compassion, gratitude, journaling, setting boundaries in relationship. So here for me what I feel is the most important is not to start automatically with journaling or with gratitude, quoting or whatever people in the industry tell you, but more about kind of doing an assessment of where you are with your different relationship. And here I talk about work, about personal, about family, friends, etc. And define where why relationships are healthy, where they're not, why they're not, if they're not healthy, why they are if they're healthy, because that also can give you some hints in terms of who you are and what you need. And then defined, if you want to keep or if you need to keep a certain relationship, how can you ensure it becomes healthier, it becomes more manageable when it comes to emotion I don't think it's automatically just to start this gratitude or self-compassion. It's about understanding for each cases which one you need and which one you don't. And sometimes it's about saying stop to one of the relationship. I had the case a couple of years ago where I had one of my longest friends that I really appreciated as a person. but her way of being and... her way where she had grown was very different to what I had grown to. And therefore, this relationship was becoming more of a strain than something healthy. And I had the choice. I could have said, okay, maybe I need to accept who she is, or I need to accept that she's very different than me or else. But instead, I decided to stop the friendship. And that doesn't make me someone that is bad. It just makes me someone that is aware of what I want my environment to be. it's okay also to let go of some friendship, of some relationships. Some cases you can't, some cases you cannot get rid of. You still have to work with your colleagues on a day-to-day, right? Unless you decide to switch completely on the job front. So in those cases, you have to learn to adapt. You have to learn self-compassion. You have to learn how to process emotions that you have toward them, if they're negative. And this is a process that you have to do. But before doing that, for me, what I always feel is very important is to reflect on all the relationship that you have in your life and how they affect you emotionally, because you are who you are. And the objective is not to accept everything, is not to accept everybody, is not okay as well. That's some emotion comes and they come for a reason. So you have to learn from that. and you have Before adapting, you have to assess where you're at overall on the topic. The third that I mentioned is mental wellness. And mental wellness is keeping your mind active, engaged and resilient. And in that case, it's about learning new skills, a hobby. reading, puzzle, creative projects. It can also be managing cognitive loads or seeking mental health challenges. If you are feeling anxious, for example, if you're dealing with depression, if you used to have a burnout, this would be the area where it comes from or the area to work on this mental wellness. And here I know the way it is described as a definition. feels more like, okay, how to keep your mind sharp, but it's also about how to be more resilient or more aware of where you have challenges. If you have more awareness where your anxiety lies, it's not about automatically fixing it and not to put a further burden on it. Same thing if you're not resilient about a certain topic, it's not about putting the burden, but it's about having the awareness that you have. that area that is a challenge and define how are you gonna deal with it how are you gonna act on it and for example I know for myself that I have a certain limit on some topics and I know I've talked before on some episodes about resilience and I want to do follow-up episodes actually on it but for those topics I can decide is this the year that I want to work on it or is it the year that no it's not now I have other topics on my plate however I'm aware of this anxiety I'm aware of this topic being where I'm less resilient and therefore it's okay I will try to avoid having that situation altogether and I can work on improving things in the future because my goal here is not also to make you feel like you have to improve everything every everywhere all year long imagine you will have some goals, you will have like some personal goals you want to achieve, right? You're going to have then potentially things that you want to improve on a day to day, you're going to have your life all together. Work usually has goals. And if on top of it, you create extra goals that is a burden for wellness, it doesn't make sense. So here, I'm also very much aware by bringing this topic is that might start to trigger or create some thought for you. And that can impact your mental wellness. My goal is not to make you feel like you have to improve. My goal is to make you aware where you are potentially or like make you, you know, my goal is to let you know it's also okay that you just have the awareness and for the year you just don't take care of the topic, but you try to avoid being in that scenario, being in that case, in that situation, right? but you know There is something that we can definitely do that will not have a major load, but that can really help you also toward other goals. So for example, for me, mental wellness, there is a topic that is so important, which is digital detox. And it's tough, right? Because we're on social media, we use, I use my computer for work, I have to do this podcast, so I also need to, you know, communicate in some ways. So it's very difficult to have a proper digital detox, but also reducing the amount of time I'm on social media, the amount of time I'm using, even though I'm watching TV, etc. can help me feel more. It can make me feel healthier overall. And actually, I can double down on it, right? My digital detox doesn't have to be a week with no nothing, no computer, nothing, no phone. And that's it. And it's a once a year thing. It can also be on a regular basis, changing a few habits. So for example, I'll start my digital detox by removing my phone 30 minutes before bed. I know it should be an hour, but... things to do and life is happening and for me a lot is happening online with my phone since I live abroad so it will start with 30 minutes and potentially increasing it so it would not be a it doesn't have to be a digital detox the way you think it has to be it can be the way it makes sense for you the goal is potentially by reducing the amount of time you use phone or you use or you watch tv or you use your computer can potentially help you on a day-to-day so again as I said also for the topic before it's very much about I'm aware of this topic here is assessing what you can or cannot do this year and defining a small list that is not a burden of things where you can you can grow and you can improve or where you think it's going to make the most impact for you to have that. understanding and that that draws oh boy the fourth one social wellness and it's about building and nurturing meaningful relationship and I think this is where potentially also you have to view wellness as one topic overall because clearly we can also have this social wellness within the other topic that I mentioned before which was emotional wellness because they're click I'm sorry my dog is starting to bark or to get upset because now the dog is passing by as I said social wellness you can definitely link it very often with emotional wellness I know emotional wellness also have a component that is not only people but it's about also the situation and therefore you can also link it to another topic so they're all interlinked and here it's not about again creating an extra load but it's about understanding social awareness so I would say when you have a clear picture on your relationships on the one you want to nurture it's defining how do you want to nurture those with those people based on the situation you're in without creating an extra load for you or for the other person. and how to make it happen. So a few examples, spending quality time with loved ones. It's your decision to put the effort or to put in motion the fact that you will spend time with loved ones, family, friends, etc. Potentially, if you're someone like me that has a lot of activities that are home-based or individual type of activities, I have to say that With tennis, I used to have this very much interactive life because I was usually playing with a team. So I was very social outside of work. Now with running, a lot less social, right? You run by yourself. Of course, there are running clubs. So this can be a good way to still meet people, interact, doing community events, etc. So it's about finding the right balance. For me, I'm definitely planning to be more engaged. Outside of work, I think also for sure, when you are an introvert, you want the space to be not automatically home, but to do things maybe more by yourself or that are going to regenerate your mind. So you don't have automatically to join a club or to be social. It's about finding what makes sense for you and how you want to build those relationships and how do you want to nurture them. So. Find healthy boundaries for your social interaction. What makes sense for you? Be aware also that what makes sense for you may not make sense for the other person. So have this awareness also of what is the expectation of the other people around you. So we go into the second half we've done already for. Now we are on the fifth component or dimension. the spiritual wellness. And first of all, it's always difficult for me with this word spiritual, because it also feels... Very abstract. And it's basically what the definition is, is finding purpose, meaning and connection to something greater. And I'm not religious, I have to say, and I will not bring religion into this topic. I do understand the people that may be religious. But for me, what I want to take out of this is basically the idea of finding purpose and meaning. And Again, it doesn't have to be a burden that this year you define your purpose so that you're 100% clear on your purpose. I will actually also do another episodes on this because sometimes I'm very worried when we talk about I have one purpose. Here are my values, etc. And having this very clear definition of yourself, I think it can be more than one thing. And I think it can be a bit difficult. But if you are in the moment of the need to have that clear purpose defined. If you are in the need to have the personal value and ethics explored, you need to definitely, for me, this becomes a goal. Because it's not about just like doing a few tweaks during the year. It's about really sitting down with yourself and understanding what is my purpose. What are my values and what am I clear on? I'm not saying it's easy. I will try again to do this this year. I myself struggle to put exactly on paper in a few sentences my purpose and my values because not that I don't have any, but more that it feels like I have a lot. But what the value is, is also very difficult to define. So if this is something that you need, this spiritual wellness, then I would highly recommend that you dedicate. quite a certain amount of time on it. It's not about thinking about it every day, five minutes. It's not about spending two times one hour. It's going to take some time and it's going to take really a long period to fully do the retrospection to understand fully what's your purpose and what's your value. So for me, this one, not that I'm less attached. I do understand where it's coming from, but I do feel it's one of the hardest. that you can integrate into your day-to-day life. And it's a piece that is very personal, that is very specific, and that should not require any judgment. You should be able to do this for yourself without judging yourself, without automatically also expecting your results, because potentially it's going to make you more confused. I've seen it. But if you have the goal to have this better understanding of your purpose, then make it a make it a prior for the year. This next one, occupational wellness, and that is finding fulfillment and balance in work and daily activities. So here we are more talking about work, daily business. your career etc and I do feel it's a very important component of your wellness right it should be a 360 and work and career is part of your life is part of all of our life whatever career we have so it's about understanding the goal of your career and is it aligned with your passion with your strengths is Are you setting work-life balance? Are you setting the right setup for you? Are you seeking professional growth and development? Do you recognize also your achievements? Because at work, sometimes it can be tough. It's also tough personally. So it's overall having that daily work life and also boundaries. So it also can go with daily life overall of understanding how you deal with with work overall in your life and the place it has and does it fit into what you want your life to be and your life evolves so potentially that wellness component will evolve maybe you're looking at a certain job or you're like happy and you use some of your strengths today for one thing and then a couple of years later it's going to be different so you have to find what fits for you And I hear some people say, oh, my job is just to live and I don't really care too much about my career. And fair enough, this can also be the way you view things. However, I would still recommend to think about the fact that we spend quite a lot of hours of our week working. So if you do a job that is not meaningful to you, that doesn't bring anything to you, It's time that... might at some point feel like a strain on your life. So you're not going to have automatically the best job. You're not automatically going to have something that makes you happy every day in the job place. But if you still feel like you're bringing value, you're bringing something to the table that is using some of your strengths, that is something that you in a way still enjoy in some pieces, then this is the right type of direction you're taking. If you're fully disaligned with the job, I don't know, I would say something random. If you work for a petrol company, but you're someone that loves sustainability, and unless you work in the sustainability department trying to find new solutions, that might not be aligned fully with your values again. So you have to think about, is this job fulfilling? Is it bringing me something? Is it helping me? grow or is part of my value that is making me feel good and again it's not about automatically doing a 180 and switching completely your your career in 2026 it's about assessing what works and what doesn't and potentially it's about okay this is not the year where I can change role because I need to keep my job for whatever reason or at the moment there is no opportunity within my company or what else but maybe there is something you can do or something you can change or maybe get a training or other opportunities or use the time to network or improve on your boundaries with emails, for example. So find what works for you for the year. Again, thinking small, achievable, not creating an extra burden for you for the year. Two more to go. So now we are in dimension number seven, which is financial wellness. And that is not an easy one coming out of Christmas. If you're like me, you have a family and you love to shower them with gifts. And so this financial wellness is not about telling you stop shopping or whatever. It's about reducing the stress. and and creating achievable goals because we know life happened we know things happened with finances we know life is not easy sometimes so if you have this automatic stress on your financials that's gonna add an extra burden into your plate so here it's about investing budgeting wisely you don't have to make it so that is like just a no spending week or whatever else It's about trying to do a bit of education if you're not aware of what's out there, having a bit of financial literacy so you're aware of your spending habits, you're aware of what makes sense, where it makes sense to save, etc. Having a bit of short and long-term financial goals so that you have this awareness of where the financial stress might come in. And I'm the first one who will tell you in 2025, my financial stress was very high. I had some extra bills that were unplanned. I took a lot of my savings out to take care of this. So it was definitely not an easy moment at all. and I am grateful that I had the finances to take care of this, that I'm grateful that I have the support to be able to deal with it. But that stress, I don't want to face it again. So now I'm putting a few more boundaries in place. I'm putting a few organizations in place. Of course, those bills weren't planned, so it's not like I overspent. But it's awareness that... those extra bills can come in and the situation can happen again. So how can I protect myself so it doesn't feel like a burden again? And how can I rebuild my finances in 2026? And it's okay that it happens. But having the budgeting prior, having the finances organized prior, reduce the amount of stress, you're still going to have the stress if all of a sudden you have to use your emergency saving. For that, you need an emergency saving, right? So you need to have this awareness. And I'm lucky enough that I grew up in a family that taught me finance awareness. And I'm lucky enough to also have studied finance. But I know a lot of people that don't and don't have the basic rules to put in place and the basic awareness of what to put in place. So I think... Maybe at some point I can do an episode on it. If some of you are not so aware, I'm not an expert in any way in where to save because it's also very dependent on each country. And sometimes you have a certain type of account for some countries and for those you don't. So it's a bit different, but there are a few rules that you should put in place. It's always have an emergency savings. And what that emergency saving is, it should be at least three times your salary. Some people save even more, but at least if you start with three times your salary saved as an emergency in case you need it. So in case you have some extra bills that are coming that were unplanned, in case, I don't know, you have to change your car or you have to do a big repair that was very unplanned, then you can use that saving and always ensure that it's refueled. Look, of course, if you need, I don't know, let's say you have $3,000 on your saving and you need $1,000. I'm not expecting you to put that thousand back the month after, if not, it's not an emergency saving, right? Because you're going to put a strain on other topic, but you should have a plan of by when will you put that money back and how much is it? 10 euros per month for quite some time, or is it going to be 50 or whatever? You have a bonus. You will, instead of buying whatever fancy object, you will put it back. It's understanding that information and understanding how you deal with those things. and Whenever you have this emergency, then that helps you for the base. And then the second piece is, of course, you should have separate budgets for your vacation, for enjoyments that you have on a regular basis. And then the last piece is your long-term savings that you shouldn't touch unless you have to. And here you can split in multiple categories. So if you wish to be a homeowner, then you should have. put money on the side for later to buy. So I'm not asking you to put all the money on the side because usually people will take a loan, but usually it's requested to have a down payment. So having an account where you put on a regular basis money that will be your savings for the down payment can be quite helpful. Also having a fund for retirement is important and that one you shouldn't touch at all unless you really, really have to, but I would I would Really try to avoid doing that. And then you can have further investment. And I won't go into details. But for me, the prior here is to tell you is that you have to have awareness of where you put your savings and how you're using your money on a regular basis to avoid being a stress for yourself. And budgeting is critical for this. But it's also awareness of what life and social life. brings to the table when it comes to money. I see a lot of commercial everywhere nowadays, even when I look at social media. We know wherever there is supposed to be an ad, but usually on top of it, you see the person spending on things during the video, during the or in the picture. And that is on top. And you see people spending and spending and spending and buying the latest whatever phone or whatever tool or going on this. vacation. And it's hard because then that makes you feel like, oh, I wish I had this. But it's important to think about, do you want to have that? Or do you want to have the stress of the finance problem later on? So sometimes it's about accepting, I will not do certain things because financially I cannot afford it right now and adapt the situation to it. And that doesn't mean later on you won't be able to have it, but maybe it's going to take you a few more years to have it. Or maybe it's not part of your budget at all. So think about that. It's not about putting pressure, but it's about finding ways to reduce pressure for you on your day to day when it comes to finances. And budgeting and emergency savings is the two pieces I would advise you to put in place as soon as possible. Our last dimension is environmental wellness. And that was so interesting to me because I feel like I put some of it in place last year without knowing exactly about this environmental wellness, because what it says, it's about creating a safe and pleasant and sustainable environment for you. And usually some of the examples I mentioned is decluttering, physical space. spending time in nature, reducing waste, advocating for clean air, water, community safety. And I'm lucky enough to be in an environment where I'm able to have my own place, to be able to have my cocoon and my home. But I also, as I mentioned here in a previous episode, about this decluttering challenge and really having decluttered. This physical space was already very much helping me feel better in my day-to-day in my home. And I still look around now and I feel like I could declutter. I still have some paths to do. So I will continue the challenge. But it doesn't feel like a heaviness. I like to watch decluttering videos. Not the ones that are automatically short. The ones that are potentially longer. There is a series where the lady used almost sometimes 20 episodes to declutter a whole home. So you really see the deep process it takes. And decluttering doesn't take five minutes. It can take a lot of time if people have gathered a lot of things and we gather a lot of things. So it's important to make it a habit and to make it a constant and not to make it an overload. But having a home that has less, that doesn't mean having nothing, as you can see behind on social media. I have plenty of books. I'm not a minimalist at all. But knowing that my things are organized, knowing where things are, knowing how much of it I have and that it's not too many, helps me feel calmer when I'm home. And it's important to have this calm space and calm environment. And you can think the same way when it comes to your workspace. If you have a desk, is your desk cluttered or not? Is your cupboard cluttered or not? Does that feel good, even in your purse? Sometimes I feel like my purse is very cluttered. So I always do a declutter of a few months and it's a good feeling that I know, okay, exactly what I have. It doesn't feel like too heavy, et cetera. And then the other component that is talking about with the environment, spending time in nature. So going on walks, trying to recharge, gardening, you know, recycling, composting, creating an environment that feels healthy and feels... good and doesn't feel like it's harming you in any way or having a negative impact on your life can be very healthy and create a less of a weight and I talked a lot in this episode I feel about the weight on the shoulder and I feel this one is almost like by doing some of it it can reduce the weight that you already had before in this in this component and we're not asking you to you know create a full blown chart of to-dos or creating a complex goals here but it's more what can I do to make my day today my environment healthier so that it doesn't feel like a strain on my life. So that was the eight dimension of wellness. I think I have been almost redundant in what I've said and how I've approached and discussed those topics or as I was reviewing it. I feel like the number one thing that comes out of these topics or Oh. those eight dimension is that wellness is about creating an environment that is safer for you and healthier for you in the sense that is less heavy on your life it's not a strain it's not a struggle or doesn't harm you in any way and it's not about creating extra goals it's not about creating an extra to-do list or making it really this, I know I repeated so much in this episode, but heaviness on your shoulder, but it's about trying to reduce that day-to-day heaviness and creating a lighter environment. So with this, I would really, I feel for myself, first of all, that I will more focus on this wellness on a day-to-day. I will make it still a goal in order to ensure that I prioritize within the year so it's also linked and it's also has even if it's a 13 minutes per day or even 10 minutes per day but that it's becomes more of a habit more something that I take care of that I focus on and potentially even I don't know writing the word somewhere wellness to remind myself this is what I need to ensure prioritize within my day-to-day and within that there is a lot of those dimensions that intertwine. So making potentially a short list of three, four topics where I want to improve which dimension it is related to. So if I take care of the topic of relationship, it would intertwine the multiple dimensions, the emotional dimension and the social dimension in that case. And I can keep going with other topics, right? When we talked about the topic of sleeping better so that would be a physical but also most likely related to the mental with the fact of having this digital detox it could also have an environmental wellness in case my place is not organized enough and my bedroom is feels too cluttered or too heavy and that potentially impact my sleep who knows but that's the idea right is to have the awareness of those a dimension and height. how they impact you in your life. Before we wrap up, I also wanted to share with you two exciting things, which are first that you can grab a free copy of the ebook I created with templates to help you define and track your wellness goals for 2026. It's my gift to you. And mark your calendar. My very first newsletter drops on January 11th. The newsletter will be packed with insights, tips, inspiration to kickstart your year. And you can subscribe using the link in the show notes so you don't miss out. And that's a wrap for today's episodes of The Pulse. If something resonated with you, I would love to hear about it. So drop me a message on Instagram, LinkedIn, or leave a review wherever you're listening. Your feedback fuels this community and I much appreciate it. Make sure to follow The Pulse on your favorite podcast platforms. and on social media so you never miss an episode. And if you're craving for more, check out the show notes for links, resources, and ways to connect. Until next time, keep trusting your journey because growth happens one step at a time. See you soon. Bye.
