For some, the new year puts a lot of pressure on starting over and turning a new leaf. You cannot become a different person overnight when the clock strikes 12. Change takes time. Focusing on your mental health in the new year is a great way to prioritize your other resolutions. Try focusing on these three resolutions for your mental health.
Get More Sleep
- Poor sleep habits contribute to depressive symptoms. People with anxiety often aren’t able to sleep.
- Poor sleep is related to higher levels of inflammation, a known risk factor for heart disease and stroke.
- Chronic lack of sleep can also raise the chance of having a mood disorder. While you sleep you process emotions. Your mind needs this time in order to recognize and react the right way.
Practice Mindfulness
- Mindfulness reduces stress levels and helps you be more effective in getting things done. It can get you out of time (pressures) and help put a pause on the moment.
- Being mindful makes it easier to savor the pleasures in life as they occur, helps you become fully engaged in activities, and creates a greater capacity to deal with adverse events.
- Mindfulness techniques help improve physical health in a number of ways. Mindfulness can help relieve stress, treat heart disease, lower blood pressure, reduce chronic pain, , improve sleep, and alleviate gastrointestinal difficulties.
Start Journaling
- You can use a personal journal to help you ease your worries by writing them down. Journaling can help you control mental health symptoms and improve your mood.
- Gratitude journaling focuses on the positive aspects of life through capturing situations, events, and interactions for which we are grateful.
- Keeping a record of personal thoughts and feelings is particularly helpful in supporting mental health by reducing anxiety, regulating emotions and encouraging awareness.
Although New Years is a great time to start new habbits, anything you do for your mental wellbeing can be done anytime of the year.
