It's the New Year: Make Resolutions to Better Your Mental Health in 2019

Submitted by Bedford Youth and Family Services

As we celebrate the beginning of 2019, we inevitably reflect back on the last year, and think about what we want for the upcoming year. It’s the perfect time to check in on your mental health, and what you can do this year to set resolutions that will help you care for yourself.

Every person’s mental health is different, so your goals will also need to be individual. If you’ve been struggling with your mental health lately, you might want to set manageable goals like brushing your teeth every day. If things have been going well for you, you might want to set bigger challenges like pushing extra hard in your career, or to hit a personal goal like running a 5K race.

Here are some resolutions that we can all use, no matter where we are with our mental health.

Be kind to yourself. Whether things have been going well for you or if you’ve been having a tough time lately, it’s important that you treat yourself with the same kindness and encouragement you would extend to a friend. If you wouldn’t say it to someone you love, then you shouldn’t say it to yourself.
Practice good sleeping habits. Getting enough sleep can be hard when you’re living with a mental health disorder, but studies show the importance of prioritizing sleep for improving mental health symptoms.
Eat healthy and get your body moving. Many people include losing weight by dieting or hitting the gym on their list of resolutions, but those goals can actually be tough on people’s mental health. Instead of putting the focus on the scale, think about how you can include more veggies in your weekly meals, or maybe going for a walk with a friend. This goal is about caring for your body, not pushing yourself to attain a certain look or weight.
Talk more about your mental health. Being more open about your mental health helps others understand your needs, and allows them to be supportive to you. It also helps to build connections. Your friends and family members may also be struggling, but if one of you doesn’t open up the conversation, you may never know.
Help others. You could take this to mean different things. You might do small random acts of kindness once a month, or put in extra effort to show your loved ones that you appreciate them. It could mean volunteering at a local soup kitchen. Studies show that helping others is good for your mental health – and those around you will appreciate it as well!

It can be tough to set New Year’s resolutions that you can keep up with, and that benefit your mental health, rather than add pressure and stress to your life. Consider some of these ideas to frame your resolutions this year. And if you ae ever not sure about how things are going check out the free mental health screening at www.bedfordma.gov/youth under the screenings section. Happy New Year!