New Year’s Resolutions That Make Your Mental Health and Wellness A Priority
Is your list of New Year’s Resolutions complete? It probably is if you have added resolutions to make your mental health and wellness a priority. If not, don’t worry. This article is about prioritizing your mental health as part of the new year, without letting it take a backseat any longer.
The world has made great strides in breaking the stigma around mental health, yet there is still always room for improvement. If you’re one to set New Year’s Resolutions, here are five ideas to add to your list to ensure your mental health and well-being is a top priority.
Practice Gratitude
What else could be a better way to start 2021 than with a grateful heart and mind? No doubt 2020 has been a challenging year for all of us. However, there is always something to be thankful for, even in the darkest times. A grateful attitude brings your attention to the positive things in life. It also helps reduce overall stress and anxiety and enhancing resilience in our physical and mental health. Gratitude enables you to deal with adversity, feel positive emotions, build strong relationships, cherish good experiences, and much more.
Let’s make practicing gratitude a resolution of 2021, which you can do in many ways. Maybe consider starting a daily gratitude journal or create a point to put a sticky note on your mirror each morning with one thing you are grateful for that day. It can be quick and straightforward to add this habit as a New Year’s resolution.
Set Your Priorities
You may have achieved something in the last year or lost something or someone you love as well. All of these experiences can influence what our daily priorities are, therefore, our goals for 2021. Whatever you have in mind for this year, create and prioritize your to-do list. Because we are constantly juggling tasks in our minds and have loads of information that we are processing at any given moment, we must write down our clearly defined goals. Seeing these goals and priorities written out can serve as a daily reminder and visual in our busy lives.
Work towards your mental health and wellness by organizing things, making goals, and converting them into SMART (specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, time-bound) goals will keep your mind organized, relaxed, and focused.
Keep Mind and Body Together
You may know the quote “healthy mind in a healthy body.” Make your mental health and wellness a priority by focusing on your physical health. You are what you eat, so make the right food choices by adding unprocessed, whole food to your diet. Avoid carbonated drinks, high caffeine and sugar intake, processed foods, and sodas. Another important thing is to avoid smoking, alcohol, and substance abuse. Give your body a fresh start with healthy food, a good night’s sleep, and exercise as well. Whether it be a brisk walk, jogging, yoga, or gym activity, adding 20 minutes of exercise in your daily life can work wonders.
Relationships can be challenging on many levels, from misunderstanding each other, to personality differences, to underlying fears. Working with a therapist will help you uncover what is standing in the way of your relationship and provide you with the tools to establish a deeper and more fulfilling connection.
Carve Out “Me Time” For Self-Care
From the daily hustle and bustle of your life, taking time out for yourself is very important. Self-care could be anything, a movie night, reading a book, painting, cooking a meal, or spending time outside in nature. It could also be those activities that will help relieve stress later, such as creating a budget, meal preparation, or cleaning your living space. Cut down your social media consumption, take a break from your work, and spend some time doing what you love.
Connect With People
Connecting with others and helping them in any possible way not only makes them happy but leaves a positive impact on your life. It increases your self-esteem, grants you peace, improves your mood and mental health. It doesn’t have to be costly, as a smile or kindness can sometimes be the best thing you can give to someone.
In Conclusion
New Year’s Resolutions can be different for everyone, but if you want to live a peaceful and healthy life, you have to make your mental health a priority. You can use some of the ideas given above or experiment with different things that work best to set your resolutions this year.
About the Contributor
Mandy Paysse
Proofed and Verified by: Erica Aina, LCSW
Erica is the Clinical Supervisor and one of many therapists at Elliott Counseling Group. As the Clinical Supervisor she supports clinical growth, oversees protocols, and provides mentorship, monitoring, support, and supervision to therapists. As a therapist, she specializes in trauma work, depression, children/teen issues, and crisis management.
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