We’re almost nearing the end of January and with the holiday season like a distant memory; many people have spent the last few weeks reevaluating some of their life choices. Creating some New Year’s resolutions is the perfect opportunity for all of us who have failed to start making the changes that they said all last year! Well, if you haven’t already decided on your new year’s resolutions or if you have already tried and failed, I have an idea for you. Why not try something new?
Take some time to sit down and prepare a list of important lifestyle changes you want to make, and include some new hobbies and because since the majority of people fail to stick to their resolution, you’ll need all the help you can get.
If you are looking for effective ways of changing your life for the better, then you’ll be sure to find tons of ideas here.
Get in shape: Losing weight combined with “exercise more” and “stay fit and healthy” it is something that over a third of the population wishes to achieve every year. It’s easy enough to start an exercise and diet program, but the trick is to find a decent one that will give you steady results and will be easy to stick to in the long run. Be sure to get some tips and advice from Ben the next time you’re in Optimal Chiropractic!
- Start eating healthier food, and less food overall: This is usually an extension of the previous resolution. Switching to a healthier diet can be incredibly tricky when we are surrounded by cheap convenience and junk food. However, with a good amount of determination and some basic tips you can slowly develop healthier eating habits. Learn to control emotional eating, be aware of reasons for diets to fail and have a look at these handy and healthy recipes.
- Stop procrastinating: The biggest barrier that keeps most people from reaching their goals is the desire to relax and do something fun instead of working hard. Once you get used to procrastinating it’s difficult to snap yourself out of it, so you’ll need to put in a lot of work to change this bad habit. There are many useful tips out there to find your way to stop procrastinating. There are also tools which can help you achieve this task. Try focusing on the end result, the outcome and the reasons why you should do it. If you’d like more tips, just talk to Ben the next time you’re in our Ballincollig office!
- Improve your concentration and mental skills: People have been trying to find ways to improve their focus and cognitive capacities for thousands of years, and most ancient civilizations had some combination of mental exercise and herbal medicine to help them reach this goal. Today we can use anything from apps to ancient meditation techniques to boost concentration and hone our mental skills. Why not try to take some time out of your day to control your mood, learn faster and have an easier time solving problems with some simple meditation techniques.
- Become more active: Some people don’t really have a big weight problem, and they even get some exercise a few times a week, but they just sit around the most of the time at home and at work, which can have a negative effect on their posture and health. In that case, all you need is to find ways of moving around more throughout the day instead of staying hunched over the computer.
- Reduce stress: Stress may be an unavoidable side effect of our hectic modern lifestyles, but it can be effectively managed with the help of useful, unconventional and easy to practice tricks for stress management. Talking to your GP, friends and family can also reduce stress levels. Exercise and meditation can also help!
- Learn to be happier with your life: It takes time and patience to learn how to find joy in the little things and not to let problems bring you down. Take time to appreciate the good things in life!
- Get more quality sleep: This is probably one of the most important resolutions in this list. Sleep gives your body and mind the time to rest, repair and grow. With big TV’s, computers, smartphones, tablets and all sorts of gadgets with glowing lights and beeping alerts, it can be hard to get enough sleep at night. You should be aiming for at least 7 hours of sleep a night but this varies for everyone. Try to relax before bedtime and get into a routine.
- Spend more time with the people that matter: There is just too little time in this life for us to put off quality time with loved ones. We should focus on the people who we care about deeply and who care about us, as this is the best way to stay happy.
- Stick to the good healthy habits you’ve developed: The last and most important point to mention is that all the positive changes you make have to be permanent. You will need to work on sticking with the good habits you have adopted, until they just become a natural part of who you are. That is how you achieve true self-improvement!
Well, there you have it – an extensive list to help you see your New Year’s resolution through and make some long-term changes in your life!
