Five lazy ways to boost your health, according to a GP (2025)

What images and feelings come into your mind when you hear the word “healthy”? For many of us, it is likely the feeling of hard work, struggle and an “all or nothing” approach. But what makes us think this way? A few things actually – firstly, the idea that we need to be perfect in our efforts to be healthy, secondly, that healthy things are hard or not enjoyable, and thirdly, that society has made us feel a sense of judgement in ourselves or from others or fear of both, if we do not achieve them.

Advertising, social media and images of health have all contributed to this idea that there is only one rigid route to achieving it. This unforgiving, harsh and impossible idea of what being healthy is puts many of us off. It puts us under immense pressure and ultimately can make our health worse by causing us stress.

Getting healthy shouldn’t be like this – it should be the complete opposite. The most sustainable healthy living habits are those which are small, simple, low cost, low effort, repeatable and are about you and what you need, at a pace you’re comfortable with.

Being healthy doesn’t mean high intense effort all the time. There are some low-effort, or “lazy” ways that we can move towards looking after our minds and bodies. This Easter weekend, try taking a break and still being healthy.

1. Sleeping

Perhaps the ultimate in “lazy health” is sleeping. You may ask how on earth this makes us healthier, but it does.

While we sleep, our cells and tissues repair, our immune system is strengthened and out our hormonal system is reset so we can maintain a healthy weight and have better cardiovascular health.

Sleep is also vital for our mental health in that we process the events of the day, we lay down memories in our brains, and we rest and recover so that we are able to focus and concentrate better the next day, and perform better cognitively. Adults should be sleeping between seven and nine hours per night, and making this good quality sleep too.

2. Breathing

Our breath is an easy, low-effort way to relax our bodies and minds. When we practise deep belly breathing or slow deep breathing, we activate our parasympathetic nervous systems, or the “rest and digest” part of our nervous system.

When activated, this puts a brake on the sympathetic nervous system and stops the “fight or flight” stress reaction from taking over. Our blood pressure decreases as well as our heart rate and stress hormone levels.

Deep belly breathing – inhaling through your nose for five seconds and breathing out through your mouth for five seconds, or using the 4-7-8 technique of breathing in through your nose for four seconds, holding for seven seconds and then breathing out for eight seconds can also help.

3. Sensing

Our five senses are extraordinarily easy, “lazy” ways to tap into being healthy. Being aware of what we are touching like our feet on the ground; what we are seeing; what we are hearing like music or nature sounds; what we taste when we eat, and what we smell, can all bring us into the present moment that we are in now.

That has the beneficial impact of stopping our minds and thoughts from worrying about the future, or regretting the past. Smell and sound can also allow us some comfort in the familiar which can trigger an associated memory in our brains, taking our emotional state into something more relaxed, calm or positive. Smell and sounds can trigger the amygdala, a part of our brains associated with emotions.

4. Writing

Life gets pretty challenging and hectic, and our brains are not machines or robots – they can only deal with so many things at any one time.

Human brains are not good at multi-tasking and science has shown that when we do try and multi-task, our stress hormones like cortisol increase and our performance worsens. The simple act of writing a list can get all of our thoughts, worries, tasks and things to do out of our brains and we can see them much more clearly, and therefore have a better chance at tackling them successfully.

Journalling your feelings can also help you to feel better.

5. Connecting

Humans are social creatures and we know that when we are chronically lonely, this has a detrimental impact on not just our mental health, but our physical health. Making a small space in your diary to see friends, family and people who matter and really connecting with them by listening, talking and doing things together, is a great low-effort way to stay healthy.

Connecting to yourself and how you feel also matters – making time and space and quiet to ask yourself how you are, to feel your feelings and to understand what makes you tick, what you enjoy and what you need is just as, if not more, important.