By Angela Rightout , published Dec 13, 2018

New Year, New Me

It’s that time of year where you begin looking ahead to your near future. Yes, the new year is what we’re discussing.  January first of every year is known, figuratively, as a chance to create a new you, or simply, the best time to create a fresh start. “New Year, New Me,” Right? Well, in the last installment of our three-part holiday blog series, SeabuckWonders will give you seven tips to help you have a happy and healthy start to your new beginning.

 

1. Don’t Disregard Small Changes

Whatever change you desire in your life, it could be to lose weight or eat healthier. Or perhaps it’s to spend more time with your children or to stop procrastinating. Always remind yourself that big change doesn’t happen without small change. Many of us will disregard our small changes and assume that if we can’t give it our all then we should do nothing.

“I forgot to bring my salad into work today for lunch and ate spaghetti bolognese and garlic bread instead. I guess I may as well eat garbage for dinner and I’ll start my diet next week.”

This is not the best attitude to have. Why? Because little steps will result in big results. Enjoy every bite of your lunch, guilt-free and eat better for dinner. Apply this new attitude toward every goal you wish to achieve. 

2. It’s not Always Necessary to add to Your Plate!

A lot of us tend to increase our workload by adding goals with a hefty to-do list to boot. We use these resolutions as a way to better ourselves for the new year. Creating goals for yourself is great. Do you want to write a book this year, in addition to revamping your company’s social media presence? That’s wonderful, but try to take things off your plate as well. It could be in the form of you not hanging around a “friend” you don’t care for. Or getting rid of old clothes and materialistic things you no longer use or want.

According to an article written for Today.com, psychologist, and author, Barbara Markway says,

“By subtracting things, you’ll paradoxically make room in your life to add things that are more meaningful.”

 

3. Make Connections Outside of Social Media

Good relationships combined with solid mental health have the greatest impact on our happiness. Positive relationships with people, including our significant others have the power to bring value to our lives. It offers a sense of belonging and a sense of identity. Through these connections, you learn from other people's insight and experiences. Then you learn together by seeking new ventures. These connections can combat loneliness. In return, they'll have a healthy impact on your state of mind.  In contrast, social media can do the opposite and make you feel lonely.

The rate of loneliness has doubled in the United States according to Psychology today. Social media may be part of the cause. The article states:

“... it was found that individuals who spent more time on social media every day felt lonelier than those who spent less time engaged in social media. Additionally, those who spent more time on social media in a given week felt more isolated than those who checked their social media less.”

4. Try Mindfulness Meditation

Getting in tune with your mind will reward you with a greater sense of self-awareness. If you’re the restless type and can’t sit still for meditation, there's always walking meditation. Walking meditation is known to help fight against depression. There’s also yoga or tai chi.  Tai chi serves as a gentle exercise that helps reduce stress. By incorporating any of these things into your life you may experience greater peace because you’re more in touch with the way your mind, thoughts and feelings operate.

5. Take Care of Your Body

Yes, this may be a given but this tip extends past eating well and exercising. You should sleep well too. Healthy sleeping patterns help keep all your senses engaged and aid positive thinking.

6. Let go of Holiday Parental Guilt

Christmas is not quite here yet and many parents are feeling the pressure. It's not enough that parental guilt is a “rite of passage” for parents every day of the year. But it rears it's ugly head right around the holidays, amplifying those negative feelings. This emotion comes from an overwhelming sense of obligation to make our children happy. Add that obligation alongside stress and financial problems and BOOM, parents are guilt-ridden. You can manage the holiday parental guilt by:

• Dedicating one single day or night to either online shopping on in-store shopping. Whatever you get on this day is it!

 

• Sit your children down and ask them their expectations. ( for those who don’t believe in Santa anymore) Tell them a realistic number of gifts or a dollar amount.

 

• Don’t attempt to keep up with other parents.

 

• Make Christmas about family togetherness versus the material things.

 

• If you’re feeling guilty because you spent too much, let that go too! What you do for your children is your business. Either way, you’d be surprised at how happy children are with what you give them and quality family time.

 

• If gifts and money are not what’s making you feel holiday parental guilt and it’s quality time that you’re feeling bad about, then let that go as well! Set aside a day around Christmas and dedicate it to your children. Make it all about them.

7. Finally, Keep Your Insides in Tip-Top Shape

Along with eating healthy, exercising and getting adequate rest, give your gut some love too. This is especially important when stress tends to creep in when the “New Year, New Me” euphoria wears off.

The gut is considered the center of your body’s health and well-being. In fact, over 70 percent of the immune system is centralized there. You can help your gut continue to thrive with the SeabuckWonders’ Omega 7 Complete Vitamins. They are known to restore natural body moisture and help with gut health by supporting the digestive system while offering immunity support.

Good Luck on your New Year's Resolution!