Year-End Resolutions: How to Make the Last Months of 2017 Your Best Yet
You don’t need to wait until the new year to change yourself for the better. In fact, the best time to start is now! We all have our fair share of New Year’s resolutions — but we often find ourselves in a situation where we break these promises to ourselves early on in the year. That's why it's important to remember that this year is not over yet and we can still do our best to end 2017 on a high note. Here's how to make the last months of 2017 your best yet. Prioritize your mental health above everything else When was the last time you set aside time for your emotional well-being? Hopefully not too long ago. With the inevitable busyness that life sweeps us up in, it’s easy to neglect your mental health in exchange for pushing yourself to get ahead in work or be a super-parent 24/7. You are important too, so make it one of your year end resolutions to tend to yourself! It’s imperative that you take care of yourself most of all on the daily, whether that be by setting aside five minutes to meditate, detoxing from technology for a while, or even sleeping for an extra hour. With a sound mind - your waves of stress won’t hit as hard, you'll be able to stay in the moment, and you will genuinely feel more prepared to take on life and its punches with grace. Similar to how the body needs healthy food and exercise, your brain needs some love and an occasional break from the outside world. Eliminate a bad habit - for good! We’re all guilty of having a few bad habits - some of which we would rather not acknowledge. However, if we are to be honest with ourselves, we can find no good excuse to have them, especially since they only exist to bring us down. Instead of attempting to eliminate a bad habit all at once, take baby steps towards breaking it and replace it with a good habit that positively contributes to your life. For example, if you have a problem with procrastination, practice completing a task the moment its assigned, or automatically finish that chore you’ve been putting off. This prevents you from taking any opportunity to waste precious time. Also, don’t be hard on yourself if you falter or accidentally fall back into the bad habit for a brief moment - you’re human and it happens. Follow through with your on-going resolutions and goals No matter your goal - whether you’re refraining from cheating on a healthy diet, learning to love yourself, or even maintaining sobriety from past alcoholism and drug addiction - remember that succeeding in these goals can only add value to the life you're living. During your journey towards completing a goal, you're bound to get sidetracked or discouraged if our efforts don't seem to bring visible results. We can’t let ourselves think that way. Goals are not meant to be instantly gratified, and we should not expect them to be. Our sacrifices towards a goal enable us to build character, develop discipline over ourselves, and see that hard work always pays off in the end. It’s one of the greatest feelings in the world to accomplish a goal, and you will experience it soon. Find a new hobby or pick a previous one back up With all the responsibilities life demands of us, it’s natural to cast aside hobbies or activities we enjoy doing. Every now and again, solely focus on an activity that gets you excited. Ask yourself: what gave you joy in the past, what you can you do now, and what have you always wanted to do? Hobbies are meant to be positive outlets for us - they help us decompress from a bad day or simply just make a good day even better. Find a hobby that makes you happy, just for the sake of experiencing happiness. It’s never too late to improve ourselves or change. What really matters to our personal growth is that we ambitiously take action to achieve our goals, embrace the mistakes we make, and gain as much as we can through our unique experiences. We can only go up from there. With these tips in mind, you’re on the right path towards launching yourself into your best year yet. And remember, you've got this!
7 Mindfulness Tips to Help You Live in the Present
You’re sitting at the beach with your toes in the sand and your gaze at the crashing waves. You should feel relaxed, but your mind is racing uncontrollably. Did you turn off the oven? What are you going to make for dinner? Oh, no! You forgot to send that important work email. The thoughts flood in faster than the waves are crashing on the shore. Suddenly, your peaceful afternoon has turned stressful. Your own mind is sabotaging your peace.To find happiness, you must learn to live in the present. Here are some tips for becoming more mindful.Here Are 7 Mindfulness Tips to Help You Live in the PresentIn today’s rush, we all think too much — seek too much — want too much — and forget about the joy of just being.- Eckhart Tolle1. Avoid autopilot We all have moments in our day-to-day routine where we’re likely to run on autopilot. It may be on the drive to work or during a boring staff meeting. If you want to become mindful, make an effort to avoid autopilot. Take extra care to notice your surroundings in these moments when you’re likely to be the least mindful.2. Meditate in the morning Before you do anything else in the morning, sit facing a wall and try to live in the present moment. If your thoughts drift towards anything other than current observations, shift your thoughts back to the moment. Meditation shouldn’t be stressful or complicated. Just do your best to focus on the present.3. Practice mindful breathingAt least once a day, try to set aside time to practice mindful breathing. This practice may be especially helpful when you’re feeling stressed. The basics of mindful breathing are easy to understand, but the practice can be a challenge. Sit in a quiet space and consciously breathe in and out. Focus on your breaths and nothing else. If you find your mind wandering, bring it back to your breath. Focus on how it feels as the oxygen enters your body and how it feels as it passes through your lips on an exhale.4. Forgive Too many of us walk through our days with the burden of hurt and hard feelings. Free your mind of this burden with forgiveness. Forgiveness is much easier said than done, but it’s a crucial step in learning to live in the present moment. Remember that forgiving someone does not excuse their behavior. It’s also something you do for yourself and not the other person. 5. Limit technology When you’re on your phone, you’re not living in the moment. Whether you’re reading an article, posting a meme or watching a video, you are caught up in something other than the reality of the present. The reality of the present doesn’t lie in the video or article. It lies in your physical state and surroundings. To become mindful and live in the present, you must address any underlying technology addiction. Try to avoid scrolling through social media and limit your technology use to necessary things. 6. Shift your attitude When you think of work as a chore, it’s more likely to weigh on your mind. Try thinking about everything you do as a choice. You go to work because you want to be there. If that’s not possible – if you truly hate your job — find another. Most of us spend five days a week at work and the remaining two are filled with work thoughts, worries and frustrations. Learn to love your job or find one you can, and you’ll find it easier to live in the present.7. Remind yourself that you are in control For better or worse, you are in control of your life. It’s true that you cannot control every aspect, but you can control how you react to the things that happen. Practice these tips throughout the day and whenever your mind seems to be racing out of control. And the next time you’re at the beach, you may find yourself caught up in the sounds of the crashing waves instead of the list of things you have to get done.
You Think What You Eat: How Nutrition Impacts Your Mental Health
No matter how many times we hear the phrase, “You are what you eat”, it never stops ringing true -- and never fails to make us think twice about our current diets. But more often than not, when we talk about nutrition in our society, we tend to focus too much on the body-image side of the equation. We forget that the imperative to kickstart more healthy eating and living habits is fundamentally about our mental and physical health. Think of it this way: food is comprised of nutrients that break down to create the energy we need to get us through our day. But more than just energy, our ability to do well relies on how well our brains can actually process how to tackle the day ahead. And why wouldn’t the food we eat affect how our brain is functioning? There’s some food for thought. You Think What You Eat: How Nutrition Impacts Your Mental Health One cannot think well, love well, sleep well, if one has not dined well. - Virginia Woolf Our mental and physical health is as affected by our diets as our views and values are shaped by our experiences. What is the exact connection between nutrition and mental health? What makes up our food determines how well a brain can carry out its duties -- aka helping you think. Mental health affects your ability to make rational decisions, function in everyday life, and form just perceptions of the world. It's important to clarify that “mental health” and “mindset” are not the same thing. A mindset is based off your own personal beliefs and dictates why you make certain choices. Mental health contributes to the ability to make a choice in the first place. Here’s how mental health comes into the picture The truth is not only that what you eat impacts how you think and perform, but also that nutrition and mental health directly influence each other. It’s proven that dietary patterns impact the quality of your mental health and mind. For instance, after you eat a fillet of salmon with vegetables vs. a greasy burger, do you feel your mood stagnate or improve? Does the ability to make sound decisions come naturally, or with struggle? What about your inclination to absorb new information, is it easy or difficult? Take amino acids, for example, the essential component that builds protein. The brain requires the supply of amino acids and protein to foster the development of neurotransmitters that communicate signals throughout the nerves to the body. Without a proper amount in our blood stream, our brains would function at a much slower rate and will be unable to help us perform at our best. If you're have difficulty concentrating, you definitely need to ramp up your consumption of antioxidants and fatty acids. Your brain is 60% fat! It needs regulatory utilization of fatty acids to keep the gears rolling and maintain the integrity of a brain's cell walls. Therefore, you need to continuously promote brain optimality by consuming what makes it properly function in the first place. A well-fed and clear-thinking brain will then help you make the right choices in turn, in favour of more wholesome and nutritious foods, creating a virtuous cycle. Food for thought: The mind-body connection When we speak about nutrition, we all know that eating unhealthily puts you at risk for diabetes, obesity, high cholesterol, and cardiovascular diseases. But eating processed food also contributes to brain damage, the development of mental illnesses, and even heavily interferes with cognitive ability. The brain damage comes from digesting too many trans fats that slowly destroy neuronal communication. Mental illnesses, on the other hand, are developed from a nutrient deficiency in the amino acid tryptophan, which contributes to creating an overall sense of well-being. A lack of tryptophan, therefore, offsets your brain's healthy chemical balance and makes you vulnerable to depression. Lastly, the lack of proper cognitive abilities like learning and memory take a serious hit from junk food, which is often high in refined sugars and low in key vitamins and nutrients. Fuel your brain to be the best that you can be You get one body in this life, and you need to treat it well! Taking care of it means not only exercising and pampering yourself, but caring about what you eat every day and paying attention to how your mind works. Sometimes, the reason why we don’t feel at our best can be solved with a simple solution: eat right -- with no excuses!