Discover 10 resolutions for a healthier life: daily movement, mindful eating, and more. Start small for big changes & embrace wellness.
1. Daily Movement
Including some kind of daily movements has benefits that exceed physical health, including mood, productivity, confidence, and clarity. Starting or ending your day with some sort of movement is a way to escape the fast-paced nature of life.
2. Fueling Your Body With “Premium Gas”
Eating mindfully and in a way that caters to your nutritional needs. We all know what “eating healthy” means. The hard part is treating it as a lifestyle.
3. Focusing on Your Relationships
“Loved Ones First” is one of the Blue Zones Power 9, a list of powerful lifestyle habits shared by the longest-lived people on earth. Spending quality time with quality people is closely linked to longevity. To the average person, this could be as simple as prioritizing family time.
4. Charity and Volunteering: “If you can’t be happy, be helpful”
Volunteering is good for the heart both figuratively and physiologically. Those who volunteer tend to have lower rates of heart disease and report higher levels of happiness than those who do not. Decide what you do best and volunteer your time.
5. Practice Grounding
Grounding is the therapeutic practice of walking barefoot on the ground to connect the body to earth’s electrical energy; during this contact, also called “earthing,” a transfer of free electrons to the human body occurs; while not mainstream by any means, grounding has been shown to reduce pain, strengthen the immune system, and heal inflammation.
6. Prayer or Meditation
While avoiding the temptation to mindlessly scroll through social media may seem nearly impossible, meditation centers your consciousness to set yourself up for a more mindful day. A day that starts with your cell phone can look completely different than a day that starts with cleaning your room and making your bed. Opting for prayer or meditation instead of our phones first thing in the morning can work wonders for our mental health.
7. Vitamin N: Saying “No” to Things That Don’t Benefit You
Learn to invest in your future self by declining invitations to events that won’t benefit you. Similarly, say “yes” to things that will benefit your future self, which can look like anything from going on that morning run you’ve been dreading, to getting a project done as soon as it’s assigned.
8. Practicing Gratitude: “Worry Less, Thank More”
Starting and ending the day with gratitude has been shown time and time again to improve mental health. This can look different for everyone – for some, this may be journaling; for others, it’s focusing on thanking others and smiling at strangers.
9. Knowing and Nurturing Your Purpose
Having strong habits may keep you on track towards accomplishing your goals. But knowing and nurturing your purpose is the fire that fuels and specifies those goals. People who know what they’re living for live better, more intentional lives. This principle ties into Resolution #8, “Practicing Gratitude.”
10. Not Striving For Perfection: “Perfection is Good’s Worst Enemy”
Lastly, striving for perfection misses the mark of healthy living. Expect consistency, not perfection. These habits are meant to make us feel our best and foster a love and appreciation for living mindfully and intentionally.
Wrapping Up
As we try out these new habits, remember that reaching our goals is about small, steady steps, not big overnight changes. These steps can really help us feel better overall. Now’s the perfect time to start making these changes, and before you know it, you’ll see big improvements in your life.
Here’s to a year of being healthy and happy, working towards goals that make us our best selves. With all that’s going on in the world, we can’t afford to be anything less.
P.S. Need a little motivation to help you stick to your goals? Head over the FLCCC Alliance Forums! It’s our fast growing community where people from all walks of life converge to talk about health and healthcare.
