healthy living – Jellybeans in the City

1. Prioritize Your Family’s Wellness

A strong, happy family begins with a foundation of health and connection. This year, make family time sacred. Share more meals, schedule device-free evenings, or discover the joys of outdoor adventures together. By nurturing these bonds, you’ll create memories that outshine any material achievement.

2. Align Your Financial and Health Goals

Imagine saving not just for a rainy day but for meaningful moments—a family vacation, a wellness retreat, or even healthy cooking classes. By intertwining financial goals with wellness priorities, you’re investing in experiences that enrich your life. It’s not just about balancing budgets; it’s about balancing what truly matters.

3. Balance Hustle with Rest

The pressure to constantly achieve can be overwhelming, but true growth often comes during moments of pause. Protect your well-being by setting boundaries, whether that means carving out time for self-care or reserving weekends for family fun instead of errands. A well-rested you is the key to supporting your loved ones effectively.

4. Build a Legacy of Meaning

Your impact extends beyond the here and now. This year, focus on creating a legacy that matters. Financial security can pave the way for your children’s dreams and ensure a stable future. Teaching them the value of financial responsibility and supporting their aspirations builds a foundation of purpose and possibility.

5. Celebrate Every Step Forward

It’s easy to get lost in the pursuit of big goals, but the small wins deserve recognition too. Whether it’s learning a new skill, ticking off a long-overdue task, or savoring a joyful moment with loved ones, these little victories make life rich and rewarding.

To turn these aspirations into reality, consider equipping yourself with the right tools. Financial protection solutions from Sun Life Grepa Financial, Inc. can help secure your future and support your goals, whether they center around life or health-focused needs. A Sun Life Grepa financial advisor can guide you in finding solutions tailored to your lifestyle and budget. Visit www.sunlifegrepa.com to start your journey toward a brighter tomorrow.

As we welcome 2025, let’s make it about more than just resolutions. Let’s focus on creating lives brimming with purpose, joy, and well-being. Here’s to your brightest year yet!

Details provided in a recent press release.

Feeling tired or stressed? Unable to concentrate or feel at ease? Overcome with exhaustion or anxiety?

If the travails of life in the metro is making you feel out of sorts, it may be time to go green… that is, go to green spaces.

What are urban green spaces?

Urban green spaces are areas reserved for parks, plant life and other kinds of natural environment.

These areas provide city dwellers with places for picnics, leisurely walks, and other forms of outdoor recreational activities. They also serve as areas where people can escape the heat, air and noise pollution, as well as enjoy some peace and quiet.

Green spaces also serve to beautify the urban setting, adding welcome touches of green and other colors of nature, thereby integrating the natural environment with the built environment.

Why are urban green spaces important?

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends universal access to green spaces, specifically that there should be a green space measuring at least 0.5 hectares at a linear distance of no more than 300 meters from every home.

This is because multiple studies have shown that green spaces help reduce stress, encourage social cohesion and physical activity, as well promote mental and physical health.

Other studies also point to increasing urban green spaces helping to stave off premature death.

Green spaces have also been shown to improve cognitive ability and social behaviors among children, particularly in the areas of attention restoration, memory, competence, socialization, self-discipline and stress moderation.

Increasing green spaces in cities and real estate developments are also seen to improve urban biodiversity and sustainability. With more plant species included planned green spaces attract birds and other fauna which help control pest infestations.

They also reduce the effects of Urban Heat Islands (UHIs), defined as metropolitan areas which are significantly warmer than their surrounding rural areas due to the daily activities of urban populations concentrated in a small area.

Green spaces in Metro Manila

Sadly, over the past several decades, the metro’s urban planners haven’t prioritized the provision for green spaces.

In 2019, netizen BA Racoma culled data from the Philippine Statistics Authority and the National Mapping and Resource Information Authority to come up with a map indicating the few remaining green spaces in Metro Manila.

These include: La Mesa Ecopark, Balara Filters Park, Arboretum Forest, Rizal Park Nayong Pilipino and Muntinlupa Sunken Garden.

Other netizens also identified Las Piñas Parañaque Critical Habitat and Ecotourism Area and the Arroceros Park in Manila as green spaces endangered by proposed real estate developments.

What you can do

If you haven’t visited the metro’s green spaces, it’s high time that you do so. This way, you can experience their health benefits and appreciate their aesthetic value first-hand.

You may also opt to patronize establishments that incorporate green areas in their design in the form of gardens or mini-parks.

You may also write to your local government unit (LGU) officials about developing green spaces in your community. Also, in every local or national election, do check out the candidate’s stand on the environment and public health to see how developing urban green spaces may be included in their future policies and projects.

Urban green spaces have been shown to greatly contribute to public health and the city’s beautification. It would be a shame if these areas dwindle and disappear, leaving the metro’s residents bereft of their various benefits.

Plant pictures taken at Rockwell The Grove in Pasig City.

Tag: healthy living

Sun Life Grepa’s 5 Tips for a Brighter 2025