Reading Time: 4 minutes Positive Changes to Make This New Year to Enhance Your Life
This is a collaborative post by Ellie Jo about happiness.
The new year is always a time of reflection, but as 2023 begins to edge closer, it is safe to say that everyone will remember 2022 as a year like no other. You may be glad to wave goodbye to 2022 and be looking forward to making a fresh start in January.
For many people, the quarantines that have taken place over the past year have provided plenty of spare opportunities to consider their lives and think about what they would like to change. Thinking about the changes you would like to make in your life is an excellent way to head into the new year with enthusiasm and a positive approach.
While in the past, your new year resolutions may have focused on improving your bikini body and spending less money, this year, things have been very different, and you may have re-assessed what matters most to you.
With this in mind, you may want to avoid the same old resolutions that people make every year and end up breaking. Instead, you may choose to make positive changes that improve your life on every level. Making meaningful resolutions is the best way to create deeper, lasting changes in your life that you can stick with way beyond January.
If you are keen to make some positive changes in your life but are unsure how to get started, then why not take some inspiration from the ideas shown below?
Re-Focus Your Energy
Before you can make positive changes in your life, it is useful to reset your focus and to consider what you actually want from the year ahead. Often resolutions for the new year are based on what people think they SHOULD do rather than what they WANT to do. You are far more likely to see results and stick to the changes that you make if you strongly believe in them and want to make them a reality.
Thinking about what you truly want will help you to re-focus your energy and allow you to channel your efforts into making these changes happen. Whatever you want to achieve in 2021, focusing your energy on making it happen is the best course of action.
Resolve Disputes
Being caught up in conflicts and disputes is a feeling that many people would rather avoid. However, sometimes situations arise that are beyond your control. Ongoing disputes and situations can be incredibly draining, and you may be wasting a lot of time and energy on being upset and angry about the situation. Emotions such as resentment, anger, and frustration can hold you back and make it hard for you to move on with your life.
However, taking steps to resolve the situation can put you on the path towards freeing yourself from the issue. Whether your situation requires you to seek legal adviceto get the issue resolved or you need to have a conversation to clear the air, taking the first step towards resolving your issue will make you feel a whole lot better.
Prioritize Health
So many new year’s resolutions involve losing weight and getting fit. However, these resolutions are often quite vague, which makes them hard to stick to and often unattainable. Keeping your motivation can be extremely hard when you are not achieving the results that you had hoped for when you look in the mirror.
Instead of focusing your efforts on weight loss, you may find it helpful to re-frame your goals and focus on your health. Making consistently healthy choices is a sustainable way to improve your physical condition without the resentment that comes from sticking with a strict diet plan.
Eating a balanced diet that is based on moderation makes it easier to sustain in the long term. Choosing to eat for health ensures that your food choices nourish your body and provides it with what it needs to function at its best.
Once you begin to eat in this way, you should start to feel the benefits, such as increased energy and clearer skin. Weight loss may also result from your new way of eating, and you should find that your cravings for sweets and processed foods start to fade.
Do More of What You Love
Spending time doing things that you love with the people that you care about is a hugely positive change that you may want to make for the coming year. After spending so much time apart this year, being around the people you love is more precious than ever before.
Travel A Little More
There’s something about getting around the planet that makes us all feel better. While the area around our hometown is still vast and large, we can still feel somewhat cocooned by the society surrounding us. Simply getting away to a new area allows us to feel fresh and to be ourselves. When we do things in new areas, we aren’t bothered about if we make mistakes or if we are awkward in public. Check out the best time to travel to the Galapagos Islands or something similar in its extravagance – you won’t be disappointed with this kind of trip. When we get away, we really flourish and the confidence gained is beyond belief.
Next: Read Tips on Saving Money for the New Year.
Rachel is an Austin blogger, educator, mom, wife, young breast cancer survivor writing about health, saving money, and living a happy life in Austin, Texas.
Rachel has written for HuffPost and Hometalk and has been featured on KXAN, Studio 512, Fox 7 Austin, and CBS Austin.