How to improve your mental health in the new year.
Ready or not the new year is here. We are facing a lot of changes and for many people things feel unsettling right now. Life as a young adult is difficult. Putting together our 2025 vision boards are a blast, but when it comes to actually making improvements to our mental health, it’s not as easy. Maintaining good mental health is a lot of work, seriously so much work!! As you are reflecting on your 2024 year and making plans for your 2025, please keep your mental health in mind. Here are a few tips I’d suggest if you are the new year’s resolution type.
1. Set Realistic Goals
Really think about your goals on a math level. Consider what you want to achieve and then figure out of the math, maths. You only have 8,760 hours in a year. If you work full time that takes you down to 6,680. If you sleep (8 hours a night) that brings you down to 3,760. If you eat (and it only takes you 30 min. 3x a day) now you are down to 3,212. That leaves us at 8 hours per day, minus showering, minus cooking, minus walking your dog, and we didn’t even factor in DVM wait times. The point is you maybe have about 5 hours per day of actual leisure or goal making time. And that is if you are a non-caregiver with limited community commitments. This means you maybe can’t do something that would require 15 hours a day or maybe even a week….Goal set according to the maths. It is much easier to up the stakes of a goal once you hit it, than it is to go through feeling like a failure. You can achieve great things, but your body and brain need you to take care of yourself too.
2. Practice Mindfulness
A great way to achieve goals is to be intentional. It may be praised at work to multitask, but in reality humans are pretty bad at multitasking. We tend to do better work and feel better about ourselves when we focus on one thing at a time. Doing one thing mindfully is much more fulfilling for me than doing 10 things at 10 percent. Pro tip, you can even do things you don’t like doing in a mindful way and it might make that task less horrible. If you can slow things down and really involve your entire self in the experience it might be more meaningful to you as well. Mindfulness gets easier as you practice, so even if it feels strange at first stick with it.
3. Maintain a Healthy Lifestyle
Take care of your body. I can not stress enough how important taking care of your body is for your mental health! Get some activity, eat a vegetable, breathe air from the outside. You might even find that you feel better after doing these things. If you are having pain or your body is not working right, see a doctor. Take your medications as prescribed. Do the things that make your body feel good both long term and short term.
4. Plan things that you can look forward to
Having something to keep you going through the week is so helpful for my mental health. Even if it is just a small event like checking out a local garden. Prioritize doing things that bring you happiness for no other reason than to bring yourself happiness. You do not have to be productive all the time. You do not need to turn every hobby or talent into income. You can simply do things just to increase your happiness. Be intentional about finding time for those things.
5. See a mental health therapist
Seeing a metal health therapist is a great way to establish goals, adjust expectations, challenge yourself, and promote growth. Therapy can be for figuring out past stuff or figuring out who you want to be in the future. Around the new year clients love looking back on all the ways they have challenged themselves and made growth in their mental health. If you are a young adult looking to get started with therapy this new year reach out to schedule your intake. There is both long term and short term benefits to mental health therapy, and is worth the cost to invest in your and mental health.
