How to set goals for your Mental Health in the New Year.

There are 5 areas of our lives that need attention and nurturance. It can be very easy to neglect them due to trauma responses, overwhelm and poor time management. In this post, I am going to give you tools and teach you how to set goals for the new year based on these needs: physical, mental, spiritual, emotional, and social. Let’s take a look at some ideas:

Physical

Physical self-care involves exercising, movement, physical therapy, and eating a healthy diet. It`s very easy to neglect this part because we get caught up with our busy routine “I don`t have time for this” or stress “I need to soothe myself, so I`m gonna eat this candy/fast food to feel better”.  One thing that can help is to think about the long-term dopamine effects that you will have throughout the years instead of wanting immediate dopamine. You feel good eating sugar in the moment, but in the long term your energy crashes and then you don’t feel so good. Here are some examples:

Goal - Cut down processed sugar – strategy – I can replace sugar with natural sugars such as fruits or honey.

Goal – Exercise more often – strategy – I can lift weights for 20 minutes 4 times a week. I can do cardio (running or a HIT exercise) for 20 minutes 3 times a week.

Mental

Mental self-care involves journaling, going outside, practicing mindfulness, meditation, or going to therapy. Yes, going to therapy can be very beneficial for your mind and it`s an important tool for healing your past. Talking to the right therapist makes a huge difference. It is helpful to have someone in the room who is not biased and can help you navigate your unconscious thoughts and feelings, to shed some light into the dark.

Goal – I want to be more present and grounded – strategy – I can focus on appreciating the beauty of the sky and nature every day for 5 minutes. Or I can feel gratitude when I am enjoying my time with someone I love.

Goal – Going to therapy because I want to heal my wounds– strategy – Once a day, I am going to do some research on a few therapists and pick the one who feels right in my gut, and I am going to commit to the process once a week.

Emotional

Emotional self-care is very similar to mental self-care as I mentioned above. Emotional self-care includes tapping into compassion towards self and others, practicing boundaries with your emotions (internal boundaries), breathing exercises to calm down the nervous system, or journaling. Emotional regulation is the goal. It can be very easy to lose our temper in traffic, lashing out our anger towards others when we feel stressed, and feeling defeated or down in difficult situations.  Here are some goals to aim for:

Goal – I want to express my emotions when I feel stuck or when I ruminate – strategy – I am going to journal my thoughts and feelings 5 times a week before going to bed and let it all out in the paper.

Goal - I want to feel less stressed and more balanced – strategy – In the mornings, I can journal 5 things that I am grateful for, and I will feel them in my heart.

Social

Social self-care involves nurturing your connections with others. It can be very easy to isolate, especially if you live in a rural area, due to a busy schedule or because of depression or social anxiety. You don’t have to have lots of friends to be happy, if you have one that’s good enough. Some people thrive on being alone (introverts) and some people thrive on being around others (extroverts) and that’s all ok.

Goal – I want to make new friends and expand my connections – strategy – I can make new friends online; I can go to therapy groups, or I can go to local events and take the initiative to meet new people.

Goal – I want to deepen my connections with my social circle – strategy – I am going to call or text my closest friend and say hi and let them know that I miss them.

Spiritual

Spiritual self-care involves meditation, prayer, connecting with a higher power, being in nature, receiving Reiki, practicing gratitude, or practicing compassion. There are many ways that you can practice your spirituality on your own terms, you do not have to be religious at all, spirituality is beyond being religious. How do you take care of your inner fire? How do you nurture this part of you that you can’t see but you can feel? How do you cultivate faith and hope in the middle of a storm? How do you deal with existential crisis?

Goal- I want to connect with myself and my intuition more often – strategy – I can meditate for 10 minutes 5 times a week before bed and sit still with myself (meditation is a great way to tap into your intuition).

Goal – I want to get to know more about my spiritual side – strategy – I can read books about spirituality; I can start asking myself questions such as what`s my purpose? Who am I? What is a higher power? And I can define my own spirituality and what it means to me.

Conclusion

Remember: be specific and realistic, ask yourself: How often can I do this? What are my limits? What is the first step I must take to start this activity?

In addition, it’s totally okay to focus on only one self-care area for now until you get to the other areas of your life; otherwise, it can become overwhelming. My clients usually report a sense of well-being, accomplishment, balance, and freedom. Discipline is freedom.

If you want structured sessions and professional help with healing childhood trauma, feel free to contact me for a 20-minute consultation call or book an appointment to see how I might be able to help you.