In this episode of the 30‑Day Healthy Habits Challenge, Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow, introduces Day 16’s habit: set aside a dedicated 10‑minute block each day to do something fun or creative. She explains that the activity can be any hobby—music, drawing, painting, cooking, photography, knitting, etc.—and emphasizes that short creative breaks lower stress, improve mood, build resilience, and make other healthy habits easier to maintain. Cheryl reflects on how adults often lose playful habits, noting that recreating a child‑like sense of carefree fun can boost wellbeing. She distinguishes between creative work (e.g., writing, design) and a separate, enjoyable activity, sharing a personal anecdote about trying acrylic painting despite no prior skill, which led to a flow state. Practical tips include choosing activities that can induce flow within ten minutes, trying something new for extra fun, or opting for a relaxing break (like reading) if tired. The video ends with an invitation to join the challenge at any time and a reminder to return tomorrow for the next habit.
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Hey everyone. I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow, and welcome to day 16 of your 30 Days of Healthy Habits Challenge. Today is fun, cuz it actually is doing something fun or creative for 10 minutes. So this is of course in addition to your 10 minutes of daily movement, but you're going to take a separate 10 minutes at some point today and set that aside to do something creative or fun. So this is often challenging for people. If, when I even think about it for myself, I'm like, what, what do I find fun? What would I actually do with this 10 minutes? Well, the beauty is it can be anything. And hopefully you have a hobby or a, a thing that you do, whether it's art or singing or dancing, or just something that speaks to you and creates fun. This fun or creative activity, it can lower stress. It supports your wellbeing and it just makes healthier habits throughout the day easier to maintain. Have like a little bit of fun. Um, short creative breaks can also support your mood and it creates stress resilience. So fun, you know, we don't always make time for it, but you can make that a habit too. And that's why I wanted to include this one in the challenge, because I definitely think it's something that when we become adults that we do this less and less. And it's too bad because those times that you're silly— and I would find, at least for me, it's it's often easiest for me to do this with friends, is that the silly creative or just fun times, just, it creates so much joy and you almost forget what it's like. Whereas I feel like when we were younger and kids, we were more carefree and had less responsibilities. It was easier to just say, pull off work and, and do something fun for 10 minutes. But it really will pay you benefits if you look at it in terms of your work, because when you give yourself that little mental break, and especially if you're in a creative field, it is nice to take a break and do something fun or different from whatever it is creative that you do for your actual job. So I would encourage you, if you are in a creative field, if you do— for example, you do— some people call what I do creative. I don't know if I really think that it is, because I don't, I don't think of writing creativity in the same way that I think of like drawing or painting or things like that. To me, that seems more like creative activity. But it is, it really is creative. And, um, even when you're doing it kind of more in a work component, uh, that it's not, you know, I'm not writing fiction or anything like that, so it's not creative in that way, but it is still a different kind of skill of creativity. So for mine, I would not choose writing, obviously. I would do something completely different. And for me, I'm more likely to choose fun for this challenge. So I would probably just maybe put on some music and, you know, really just take a moment to immerse myself into it and listen to it. I find that very fun and very rejuvenating and very refreshing break from work. So here's some other ideas for you if, if none of that is resonating with anything so far. But I already mentioned music, I mentioned drawing or painting. There's also cooking or taking photos or some other hobby that you have. Maybe it's knitting, crochet. Maybe it's— one of my friends does this thing with these little like sparkly crystal things, putting them into pictures and stuff. So just anything like that. And ideally also something that you can get in a flow state with, if you can, within 10 minutes, because it'll just give you that stress relief because you're totally focused and you're not thinking about anything else. And in the past when I've done this, I haven't thought it was fun. I, I cannot draw or paint at all, just was never a skill of mine. But I had bought this inexpensive acrylic set from Hobby Lobby. I think those are pretty all over the US anyway, and it's just a place that has a lot of different creative supplies and, and housewares and things to decorate with and stuff like that. So a lot of stuff for creativity. But being a person that doesn't paint or draw at all, bought this little inexpensive paint kit with— it had a canvas— and spent the afternoon on my patio and started. I had an inspiration piece that was a flat perspective thing that I had seen somewhere that I had a photo of, and I got so immersed, such in a flow state, it was unbelievable. That it was even more so of a flow state because I I just didn't know what I was doing. So extra bonus points if you try something new with this challenge that you're not used to, cuz I think it, it can create an extra fun thing. So if you're extra tired when you're doing this and this fun doesn't seem like the thing, go for relaxation, whether it's just a 10-minute break to do something you don't normally get to do, like reading, something like that. That would be fine as well. So that is your habit for today. And if you're not yet signed up, you can always start at any time. Would love to have you. And that's it for this one. So I'll see you again tomorrow.
