It’s a new year – time to take care of yourself!

First of all, I would like to start by wishing you a happy new year in the first blog post of 2017! I hope you had a great start to the year! 😊

This post will be all about new year’s resolutions, but with a bit of a twist…

New year, new you right? It’s what everyone seems to be repeating to each other this January. The New Year brings with it a promise of a new start, of a clean slate. With this in mind, many strive to think of resolutions they will try to achieve and follow in the coming year, often however failing after a couple of attempts. If you are part of the percentage who manages to successfully follow your resolutions, then hats off to you. But if on the contrary you tend to be part of the other (larger) segment of the population who tries but never manages to maintain your resolutions, spare yourself the disappointment in a month’s time and try to focus on something which is hopefully more achievable.

You see the problem with many resolutions is that they are things which we are not in habit of doing and expect ourselves to take up in an instant. Sorry to break it to you but habits do not work that way. I mean take my case; I am generally not a sporty person so setting myself up to go to the gym or take up a sport for that matter at least once a week is most likely to fail as one, I am not a sport kind of person, and two, I will probably use the excuse of not having time to put it off anyway.  (This is not to say that I never think that I should be going to a gym especially around April and May, when the weather becomes warmer outside… maybe one day I will actually commit to going to the gym but not quite now 😉)

With this in mind, I thought of setting more achievable goals if ever there were ones, specifically two main ones: taking care of my mental health and also physical health. We take on so many things and get ourselves so busy that we tend to neglect or rather not think about how all of this affects us mentally and physically. We all know that we should do at least an annual general check up at our physician but in reality how many of us really make that appointment?

Referring to mental health, there’s one thing that generally stops many of us from considering it, and that is mainly the stigma around mental health. When I refer to mental health, I don’t mean necessarily looking out for mental illnesses although they are equally important. Have you noticed that after a particularly stressful time, say working on a big project at work or final exams at university, you go through a period of constantly forgetting things, finding it difficult to articulate thoughts as some words do not come so readily to you, get tired more easily, and other such ‘symptoms’? They are all signs of a tired brain, that you basically need a break. And that is what I am referring to when I say mental health. Learn to recognise when you are burned out and take action. Everyone has there own personal way of relaxing so I leave it up to you to decide on what works well for you. A holiday always helps as does a week of taking it easy and not doing anything.

As to physical health, although exercise should be on everyone’s list of things to do as it not only helps to look good but has other positive effects as well, I refer to keeping your body healthy. Do yourself a favour and don’t keep postponing your annual check-up or that eye test that you’ve been meaning to do for months. Having a balanced and healthy diet also helps. Don’t restrict yourself with some kind of diet as let’s face it, that is basically setting up yourself to failure. But do be more mindful of what you consume. And finally, drink plenty of water! I know that it’s good, you know that it’s good, but neither of us does it. If it helps, download an app to help you monitor your fluid intake. Whatever it takes, do try your utmost to drink those 2 litres of water everyday. You’ll thank yourself later!

So, to reiterate, mental and physical health are important and should not be neglected. This new year focus more on yourself! Here’s to the year of you! 🥂

Head over to Pinterest and follow @thoughtfulmuse for some ideas on how to take care of your mental and physical health:

For those days when motivation is lacking…

I’m sure I am not the only one who has those kinds of days where nothing seems to go right, where nothing is done with enthusiasm, and all you feel like doing is get into bed and sleep it off to start afresh the next day.

During the years I have realised that doing certain things when I’m having one of these moments tends to help, especially at times where you cannot simply go the bed and wish for it to go away, but rather you have to plough on and meet deadlines.

There’s one important thing to keep in mind in all of this. Realise that YOU are the primary person who can help yourself when feeling like this. It’s amazing what we can do for ourselves to perk us up in such moments. Tell yourself that you can do it despite the apathy, sleepiness, boredom or whatever else is keeping you from continuing what you’re doing or have to do. This is the most important thing to start with. Then of course, there are other ‘helpers’ to help you find that amount of motivation which will get you through 🙂

Reading for me works wonders. If I am feeling unfocused and cannot get my head into what I am doing, I take a break and spend some time reading a book. Now, this can be anything. I tend to stick to novels but you might prefer other reading material. Essentially what you will be doing is taking a break. So, if you’re not into reading, find something that you find helps when facing such situations, whether this is exercising, walking your dog, or whatever else tickles your fancy.

Music is another essential especially when I want to block out any disturbance that is causing the lack of focus. Spotify is a good starting place (although be careful to not find yourself spending precious minutes going through every playlist to find the perfect one *I know, I know, we’ve all been there*). I suggest instrumental or classical music if you are working on something that needs concentration or focus. Or else, if what you need to be doing does not require particular concentration, say you have to clean around the house or cook (which although an enjoyable pastime for some, can still be a bit of a chore when you don’t feel like it), blast out your favourite music to boost your energy levels up. (Scroll down for some suggestions 😊)

And, as if you needed another excuse to eat chocolate, it is proven that chocolate stimulates the production of endorphins, serotonin and phenylethylamine amongst others, all of which help elevate moods and act as anti-depressants therefore leading to an overall sense of well-being and increase focus and alertness. Furthermore, studies have shown that chocolate has a positive effect on memory. Read more here, you know, just in case you’re having some doubts about it all 😉.

What I would personally avoid is going through social media. I know, I know… it’s easy and a readily available form of entertainment. But trust me, it can do more to put you out of focus than the contrary. You know, those “I’ll watch one video on YouTube to have  short break” moments which usually result in video marathons, or the constant refreshing of your Facebook timeline just in case something new comes up that you haven’t seen before. It’s a vicious cycle which is very hard to get out of before many (precious) hours have elapsed. So do yourself a favour and try to control the times you check your social media.

These are just some ideas… let’s say inspiration to help you figure out what works for you 😊.

Till next time! x

For when you are in a mellow kind of mood and need to seriously concentrate on the task at hand….

 

For when you want to dance around and sing out loud….