Leaving 2018 Behind

2018 has been an eventful year – the winter Olympics happened in February, there was a royal wedding in May, and November marked 100 years since the end of the first world war. Personally, 2018 has been a year of big changes and, although it sounds cheesy, I am one hundred percent a different person than I was at the start of the year. 2018 has been a great year, but I am more than ready to kick 2019 of with a bang. In this blog post you will find New Year's Resolution Ideas and tips on how to keep them.

NEW YEARS RESOLUTIONS

One of my favourite parts about entering the New Year is making resolutions. Whether the resolution is large or small, it is always exhilarating to try and become better at something. Without further ado, here are 7 New Year’s Resolution Ideas:

START MEDITATION

According to Healthline benefits of meditation include that it helps to reduce stress and anxiety (one of the main reasons I want to try this out), it can make you more positive towards yourself and others, it lengthens your attention span (good for those long lectures and exam revision), it can also improve your sleep quality and combat insomnia, and finally you can meditate anywhere, making it extremely easy to do. For more reasons to start meditation, check out the article here. For beginners I would recommend the Headspace app (you can also access it online); it is easy to use and keeps track of how long you have meditated for. I use a free plan and am currently more than happy with my experience, however I will let you know if I find any other good apps for meditation.

LEARN A LANGUAGE

I am very fond of learning languages, to the point where I am currently learning three – Greek, Italian, and Welsh – however I am hardly fluent in any. I would recommend either Duolingo or Memrise as they both have free plans and have both provided good results in my experience - I am partial to Duolingo because I use that more frequently. On the other hand, to give credit to Memrise there is an abundance of languages and other topics as well. Which one do you prefer? Or is there a more effective one you would recommend?

           

BE MORE ACTIVE

There are many ways you could interpret the above phrase but, in this context, I am talking about fitness. Personally, I have had many failed attempts at becoming more active, but this year I am determined to change. You could become more active by having a 10,000 steps daily goal (gradually ramping it up further along the year), join a dance or yoga club and learn from a professional, or you could just stay at home and learn from a tutorial video on YouTube. It’s not about what or how much you do – it’s the fact that you are doing it and striving towards your aspirations.

READ MORE BOOKS
Reading, for me, is a way to free my mind from reality. I have just finished reading ‘One of Us is Lying’ by Karen McManus, which is bone-chilling good (a blog post on it will be out soon!). Another thing I really enjoy about reading is poetry – just writing beautiful words and ugly truths – it’s not for everyone but I do love a good poetry book. A good way to start reading more is to join a local or online book club – where there is a community of other people who genuinely enjoy reading. At some point, I would like to set up my own book club so keep your eyes open for that. 

SHOW GRATITUDE
Showing gratitude can have an immensely positive impact on your day to day life and feel better about your life as a whole. One easy way to show gratitude is too keep a Gratitude Journal – all you have to do is write one thing you felt thankful for on that day, which can be useful to look back at when you are feeling down. I also use grateful thinking to help me cope with panic attacks.

PRAY MORE OFTEN
This doesn’t apply to everyone, but for me (as a relaxed Christian) I try to pray as often as I can however in the New Year, I am determined to make a schedule and stick to it. Praying is a time to just talk to God about good things, bad things, things that happened, and things that didn’t. I love finding the down time to just be still and feel content.

WAKE UP EARLIER
The final resolution idea! I have started attempting to have a more mindful morning and alas it has not been going well – I usually just press snooze and fall asleep again. But having a night and morning routine can lead to a good night’s sleep, giving you a more optimistic beginning to the day. Some things to try include not using your phone for at least a half hour before bed, having a drink in the morning to keep you hydrated, or making your bed as soon as you wake up.

HOW TO KEEP YOUR RESOLUTIONS

Now you have been inspired, the question is how are you going to keep your resoltuions for a full 365 days? I have two methods to share with you:

          START SLOWLY

          When you first start out in Janurary, just focus on one baby step at a time, for example if your resolution was too meditate you could start out doing only 3 minutes a day. However further on in the year you could increase that to 5 minutes and then 10 minutes.

MAKE IT A HABIT

My dad has always stressed that if you want to do something successfully, first you need to build a habit. Did you know it is easier to teach a dog a new trick than make it unlearn an old one? For instance, instead of trying to stop going on your phone so much before bed, you could start reading a book as an alternative – replacing the old habit. 

What are your resolutions for 2019? Have you got any tips on how to keep them? What is the weirdest resolution you or someone you know has attempted?        

          

Neve Xx

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