3 Steps to Positively Changing This Year
It is 2024, a new year, a new beginning. In January, many of us usually set New Year's resolutions and if you are here and reading this, this means that you are probably one of those people, and you wish to make some efforts to change your life in the new year for the better.
Here are a few tips on how to change this year, and not only this, but every year of your life.
1. Focus on Your Health and Well-Being
Focusing on your health is a great start of the year. If you feel healthy enough, just take a moment for appreciation of the health that you have and focus on maintaining it as much as you can because it is one of the things that is often taken for granted until lost. If you do not feel completely healthy, make sure to invest time into getting better. I am not just talking about taking medicine after you get sick, but taking care for body and mental state so that you prevent yourself from even having to take medicine if possible.
Your overall health consists of your physical and mental health. They influence each other because your body works as a whole. Do some things as simple as short, but consistent physical activities, building the habit of taking a variety of nourishing foods, while cutting down on the less nutrient-packed ones that end up making you feel sleepy and tired, rather than energised. Get enough sleep, keep yourself hydrated enough throughout the day, do not allow unnecessary stress in your life, participate in leisure activities so your brain has rest from daily responsibilities.
It may sound like too much, but it is not too difficult to do and it is a matter of priorities. If you wish to improve your life, you will need to nurture and take care of yourself. Also, even if you have an extremely busy schedule, you can always find time to make small, but consistent changes in your daily life and not too long after, you will notice that there is a small and positive transformation happening within you, which over the time becomes bigger.
2. Stay Away From Negativity and Toxicity
Creating a positive environment from the inside will make it come back to you from the outside, but avoiding negative environments is also important so that they don't contaminate your inner world. Be positive and do not allow negativity to get close to you so that it does not destroy your inner peace. Due to some actions that we can perceive as negative, which are inevitable in our lives, we can come to the conclusion that there is nothing that we can do to protect ourselves from them. However, this is not true.
When something negative happens, do not take it personally and try to respond in a positive way, even if you do not feel like it. It sounds very counter-intuitive at first because responding to negativity with negativity is a natural human reaction, but consciously making the choice to react positively will be better for you and it is more likely to mitigate the trigger as well.
Remember that a reaction is an action as well. While negativity can be persisting, you also need to be persistent with your optimism. If you feel the security and belief in yourself, you will positively affect others and then, in return, the positivity will come back to you in a different form.
It is easy to say and difficult to do for some people, but if you truly wish to create a better year, you need to start by working on yourself from the inside out while also avoiding limiting environments in order to start seeing the positivity come back to you later from the outside.
Some people are naturally more positive, others need to make conscious efforts to reach the same result. A positive environment can naturally make you a happy person and I highly encourage you to try spending more time with people who give you energy, rather than spending it with those who drain it from you.
3. Let Go Of The Past
Letting go is quite important for having a great year because there is no way to start something new when your mind is not looking ahead. It is crucially important for you to use the past only as a lesson for the present and future, but without the regrets. They are not worth it.
Do not dwell on negative experiences so that you do not miss out on the positive ones happening right now. If negativity is surrounding you at this moment, allow yourself to feel it because you cannot ignore it, but when it gets better, find a way to appreciate the good as well.
Be forgiving towards yourself and others so you can ease your mind from the negativity caused from judgement. If something or someone has hurt you in the past, do not allow it to hurt you in the present. Forgive, even though it does not feel fair, because this is the way for you to achieve inner peace and start growing as a person, while achieving new goals.
All in all, all of these steps are connected to each other in one way or another. They may seem difficult to do, but these are things we can all master with practice. Attempt to do what you are able to and you will notice how this becomes your best year yet!