New Year's Resolutions to Improve Your Mental Health and Wellbeing
December 29, 2021
By: Justin Gasdia,
Master’s CMHC at Liberty University, Bridge of Hope Intern
After the busy festive period, the New Year can be an excellent time for a fresh start, and a chance to begin the year with a healthy mind-set. You may already have some ideas for New Year’s resolutions – you may be planning on joining a gym, spending more time with family, looking for a new job or career path, or cutting back on the amount of junk food that you eat.
You may also be looking for ways in which you can improve your mental health in 2022. Here are some great ideas on how you can focus on your psychological wellbeing in the New Year, resulting in long-lasting benefits.
1. Cut down on drinking and avoid drugs
You may have been drinking more than usual during the party season and may even have taken drugs during this time. However, these substances are incredibly harmful to both your physical and mental health. It’s well-known that alcohol is a depressant, which can negatively affect your mood, making you feel low and anxious. Depending on which drugs you misuse, the effects on your mental health can range from anything from depression, anxiety and euphoria to long-term psychosis, hallucinations and delusions.
2. Look after yourself physically, to feel better mentally.
Your physical health and mental wellbeing are linked, and as such, there are lots of positive changes you can make to improve your physical wellbeing that will also result in psychological benefits.
· Exercise regularly
· Eat healthily
· Get plenty of sleep
3. Get yourself 'out there'
For many, January in particular can be a miserable month – Christmas is over, you may be eagerly waiting for your next pay slip, and the dark nights and poor weather can mean that all you want to do is stay at home. However, staying indoors and potentially isolating yourself, can have a negative impact on your mental health. Therefore, it’s a good idea to actively look for ways to get yourself ‘out there’ in the New Year. You could try joining some form of group or club, based on something you enjoy or something you’ve always wanted to try.
4. Practice self-care
It’s so important to practice self-care as a means of improving your mental health. It can be easy to focus on the needs of other people in your life at the expense of your own needs but taking just a small amount of time for yourself can be hugely beneficial to your psychological health.
· Plan time for yourself
· Discover what makes you happy
· Stop being so hard on yourself or others
5. Consider taking a break from social media
There’s no doubt that social media has interconnected much of the world and can be a great way to keep in touch with friends and family. However, with increasing use, social media has the potential to have a negative effect on mental health.
Social media sites such as Facebook and Instagram can increase stress levels and have a detrimental impact on mood due to the fact that they encourage us to compare our lives to the lives of other people. Therefore, when you see others’ seemingly ‘perfect’ day-to-day lives, this can lead you to feel inadequate that you’re not able to match them.
As a way of starting off the New Year on a positive note, you could try logging out of your social media accounts and evaluating the impact that this has on your general mood, stress and anxiety levels and overall wellbeing. You might find that you’re much happier without having a constant insight into other people’s lives. In addition, without the incessant scrolling on your phone or tablet, you may find that you’re able to spend an increasing amount of quality time with your family and enjoy your leisure time more than ever.