It’s the New Year and a great way to start off the year is by finding things that will help you take better care for yourself. By caring for yourself, you are telling yourself that you are worth making time for. I challenge you to find healthy things that you enjoy and take the time to do those things. This could be anything from stealing an hour to read a book, going to a movie you’ve been wanting to see, taking the time to go to an exercise class. As long as it is something that you enjoy, see as a positive action in your life and feel that it is something you want to make time for, then it is a way that you can take care of yourself.
Self-Care options:
- Exercise: join a class, take up a new activity or sport, take lessons, go for a walk; as long as it is something you have an interest in and want to make time for. In choosing a form of exercise, just make sure it is something that you want to do and enjoy because part of caring for yourself is doing things that you like to do. There are a lot of inexpensive options out there such as classes at the YMCA, Planet Fitness and other local fitness clubs. Some forms of exercise are completely free, such as running, walking, or doing video’s you can find for free on the internet.
- Eating right: Do you want to cook more, choose healthier options when eating out, pack healthy lunches for the work week? Whatever way you can make a little change in your eating habits to benefit your overall health will not only help you with weight management, if that is a concern, but will also change how your body feels. Think about how you can make these changes. Will making larger meals over the weekends help with your busy weekday schedule, packing your lunch the night before so you don’t have to make the time in the morning, reviewing menus before you eat out to look for healthy options. Finding ways to make mealtimes easier by planning ahead will help with this.
- Meditation: It can be hard to sit still when there are so many things going on around you, so many things you need to do and places you need to go. The act of meditation teaches us to slow down and be present in what is going on in our lives. By taking just a few minutes to quiet your mind and put everything on pause, you are able to hit the reset button on your life. There are several apps out there that can help walk you through a meditative state. Some that I suggest are: Headspace offers guided meditation and mindfulness techniques to help relax and bring balance to life, Present is a mindfulness and meditation app that focuses on bringing you more focus, stress reduction, relaxation and better sleep, and BetterMe is said to be meditation for people who can’t meditate, it focuses on learning breathing techniques that will help you manage your stress and anxiety. Give one of them a try and see if it is something that is helpful for you.
I hope these techniques will help you reset and refresh in the New Year!
-Amanda Samuels