I’ve noticed that people are boycotting new years resolutions this year or opting for “anti-resolutions”, and I certainly agree that January is not the ideal time to be making strict new rules for ourselves, following restrictive diets and vigorous exercise regimes. It’s January, it’s cold and dark, we’re feeling sluggish from a few weeks of overindulging and watching movies on the sofa, our inbox is building by the second and there’s usually extra financial pressures so why do we choose this already stressful time to set ourselves unachievable goals.

For the purpose of this blog post and because the most common new years resolutions tend to be to lose weight and exercise more, we are going to focus on health and wellbeing but remember there are plenty of resolutions you can make which focus on the bigger picture such as making steps to being more sustainable or giving up your time to help people in need.

We believe that every single day can be a fresh start and new opportunity to set goals, be healthier, be kinder and chase dreams! So you’re thinking it’s already 8 days into the new year and I’ve given up on all your resolutions then take a deep breath, re-focus, re-evaluate and start a fresh on January 9th!

Here’s 5 lifestyle resolutions that I wanted to share with you as I know you CAN keep these ones! New years resolutions normally go to pot when they are too open and broad like “I will drink more water” or “I will lose weight” or “I will join the gym”. You need to be more specific, break your resolution down so that it’s more achievable. So to achieve your goals you need to be a little more specific, see our examples below and try them yourself or make your own and share with us.

1. Drink more water becomes “I will take a glass of water with me to bed and leave it on my bedside table to drink first thing in the morning before I do anything else”
2. Read more becomes “I will put my phone away and read at least one page of a book right before I go to sleep”
3. Eat more greens becomes “I will have a large portion of greens with 2 of my meals a day”
4. Do more yoga becomes “I will do 5 sun salutations every morning”
5. I will be less stressed becomes “I will take 15 minutes simply for myself everyday to breathe, listen to my favourite music or read my book.” 

Some of my other tips for new years resolutions is to think about what it is you really want to achieve, what makes you feel good and what you want to do more of? Don’t set too many, 4 to 5 is more than enough and it’s manageable. Write them down somewhere you can see them every day. May your coming year be filled with love and adventure from us here at Our Retreat.

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