New Year - New Me?

How many times have you uttered the phrase "New Year, New Me!" on New Years Eve? I'm not going to lie, it's been a few for me too...but we all know where that gets us. Choosing goals that are unsustainable and unobtainable, leading us to feel unmotivated, unaccomplished and unconfident. So, let's change the pattern.

With the start of this new year, rather than try and create a whole "new" me, let's aim for small, consistent effort everyday to improve our wellbeing. These small changes may not make any impact at first, but they are like compound interest, adding up overtime in the background until one day you look back, and realise how far you have come.

"If you can get 1% better each day for one year, you’ll end up 37 times better by the time you’re done." - James Clear, Atomic Habits

Here's my list of 7 small changes you could make in your everyday for your wellbeing:

1. View sunlight within 15mins of waking

Studies show that viewing low solar angle (i.e. sunrise) sunlight as close to waking as possible can improve mental health, physical health and physical performance. Try and do this for a minimum 5-10mins on clear days, 10-20 mins on cloudy days and 20-30 mins on overcast days (yes the benefits of UV light are still there!). So grab your morning beverage and enjoy a bit of sun before you start your day. For more information on this, check out the YouTube link below from the Huberman Lab.

2. Drink 1 glass of water when you wake up

Speaking of your morning beverage, try and drink 1 glass of water before any other beverages (aka coffee) which could potentially make you more dehydrated. We all know we need to drink more water, and this is a great way to kick-start our consumption. Drinking water in the morning has shown a number of health benefits including: improving mental performance, boosting our mood, hydrating not just our bodies but our skin and preventing headaches.

3. Make your bed

Yes, another one to add to the morning routine - but one that is achievable under 2mins flat. Making your bed will do two things: make your room look clean, tidy and organised which will translate to your mental clarity; and, make you feel that you have already accomplished something for the day and you haven't even left your bedroom! You'll love coming home to a ready made bed ;).

4. Move your body

We all know the benefits of moving our bodies, both for our mental and physical states. Understanding lives can be busy but try and schedule at least 15mins of some kind of movement in (whether it be walking, dancing, Pilates, yoga, gym) everyday. Of course, more movement would be more beneficial, but if you start with 15mins and are consistent with that, you'll find yourself wanting to stay longer, do a bit more and dare I say, look forward to it?

5. Schedule rest

Just as you would schedule anything else in our lives, schedule some kind of rest in your day. It only has to be a couple of minutes where you allow yourself to decompress - guilt free! In the current climate, it seems that everyone is always hustling, accomplishing, and ever moving - this is how burn out happens. Life is all about balance, the yin and yang. Movement and rest and equally important, make time for both.

6. Step away from your phone

Yes, they are addictive and yes, I know how difficult this is. This is still something I'm working on, particularly in the morning. My pact with myself this year is to not look at my phone in bed, both morning and night (I'll start with that and build on it...). There's a number of ways to do this: set a time limit on the apps that you are most distracted by (essentially locking them for use outside of this time); turn off as many push notifications as you can; and, buy an alarm clock and keep your phone outside of your room, to name a few. Johann Hari has written a great book 'Stolen Focus' that you could read or listen to on Audible to learn more about this and some tools to negate it.

7. Do something just for fun

As we get older we tend to lose our sense of play, which is a real shame - why should the kids get all the fun? When we immerse ourselves in something for the simple purpose of enjoying ourselves, we can start to enter a state known as 'flow'. A state in which time has no real meaning, our creative mind is brought forward, allowing the feelings that generally cloud our minds (e.g. stress, worry and self doubt) to take a back seat. Paint, read a book, do a puzzle, take a pottery class, knit - the options are endless! This doesn't have to be an everyday occurrence (although wouldn't it be nice if it was...) but once a week, do something just for you, just for fun.

These small changes are not designed to achieve a goal, they're designed to improve our state of mind and wellbeing, and to develop a system which focuses on continual improvement rather than one main goal. We are always growing, learning and evolving as humans, lets change our focus from goals to developing healthy systems, allowing us to become better versions of ourselves, 1% at a time ;).

With Love,

Chloe <3