Every year, as the clock strikes 12:01 A.M. on January 1st, many people set resolutions and goals they want to achieve over the next 365 days. But unfortunately for most, these goals and resolutions tend to get lost in the hustle and bustle of day-to-day life. And as a rehabilitation clinic, we hate to see any of our patients or their family and friends not obtain their goals. We strive to help every person we meet to be successful in whatever they set out to do, whether it be to recover from an accident or make a healthy change to their lifestyle. So as 2019 is still relatively young and everyone’s eagerness is high, we thought we’d take this opportunity to share some health and wellness resolutions that we believe anyone can accomplish. We’ve chosen to make each resolution more overarching as opposed to very specific in hopes of helping people achieve what they set out to do. Because really, even a small improvement in your routine is enough to have a significant impact on your health and wellness.
Sleep More
This is one resolution that typically shows up on a lot of people’s resolutions list. And even though we all seem to complain about being tired day in and day out, we still don’t seem to achieve this resolution. Where we find things go wrong is that people set a number of hours of sleep they want to accomplish every night. And sure, if you’re able to achieve that, then we wholeheartedly suggest you do so, but for the ones who seem to struggle with sleep-related resolutions, we recommend making your resolution more open-ended. By this, we mean why not try and achieve one extra hour of sleep a night instead. Rather than going to bed at 11 P.M. (if that’s your usual time), aim for 10 P.M. or even 10:30. This will help ease you into the resolution and make it easier to achieve. And once you’ve gotten into the routine of going to bed 30 or even a full 60 minutes early, then bump it again until you’ve reached your “____ number of hours of sleep per night” resolution. And we’re not saying this has to be a one-year resolution, you might find it easier to try going to bed one hour earlier for all of 2019 and then up it by another hour for 2020. The key here is to do what is realistic for your day-to-day routine.
Get More Exercise
This is another resolution that tends to end up on a lot of resolutions lists, but far fewer seem to accomplish. Whether in the form of “go to the gym at least five days a week” or “exercise for at least an hour every day”, we find that again, people set their resolutions to be too specific— making it tough to achieve. So rather than setting a large, lofty goal initially, aim to simply exercise more. This can be anything from walking around the office for 10-15 minutes each day (also a great way to improve productivity) or taking the stairs if your office building has multiple floors. Even something as simple as taking the dog for a walk every day after work or going for fun family hikes 2-3 times a month is a great way to mix family time and other daily obligations with your resolution. Only you know your routine and what will work for you, so aim to start by doing whatever you can without disrupting your daily schedule.
Prioritize Time With Friends and Family
In today’s connected world, it’s easy to feel like you’ve caught up with friends and family without ever actually seeing them. But for 2019, make it a priority to prioritize friends and family. This means leaving the office at a decent hour to be able to spend more family time each night, saying “yes” one extra time to a night out with friends when you would normally say “no” or even just turning off the phone for a few extra hours each week to catch up with a significant other. By reminding yourself to “prioritize friends and family” versus setting a resolution that involves working less or limiting screen time, it’s easier to keep sight of why you set the resolution in the first place. And by doing this, we find that it becomes easier to achieve your goal. Not to mention, you might achieve multiple mini resolutions in the process.
Learn
Forgetting to continue to learn is one of the biggest mistakes we find people tend to make. Whether it be professional learning or personal learning, remembering to continue to learn long after you’ve graduated from high school, college, university or any other training institute is what makes us all better people. Because let’s be honest, everybody has something to learn. So for 2019, adding some learning into your routine. Whether it be learning a new word and its meaning each day, expanding your career with the additional training courses or even learning how to play a new sport or instrument, learning is a great way to improve our overall wellness.
Stress Less
This resolution seems to go hand in hand with the ideas above. By sleeping more, exercising more and prioritizing family and friends, it’s possible to reduce the amount of stress we experience. This is because sleeping more turns off our brain for a little bit longer, exercising more allows us to shift our focus to other things and prioritizing family and friends means getting out of the office earlier. And these are just the start when it comes to making 2019 the year you stress less. Many people find that writing in a journal, going to yoga classes or just simply trying to adjust their attitude can also help to reduce their amount of daily stress.
And there you have it, five ways that we all can focus on and achieve to benefit our health and wellness throughout 2019. We hope they spark your interest and prove to be a motivating factor for your year. Next time you’re in the office, we’d love to hear what resolutions you’ve set for yourself. And as always, if you have any questions regarding anything above or would like to speak to one of our rehabilitation professionals, we encourage you to reach out to us by phone, email or even by stopping into our Waterloo office.
Happy 2019!