Why it’s perfectly ok for your New Year’s resolution to be to take more nanna naps!
I’m going to start by saying, I usually never make New Year’s resolutions! I know myself well enough to know that setting a goal to do a certain amount of exercise each week or cutting down on my alcohol or cheese intake will be completely pointless**. Mainly because I really don’t want to do these things. My general rule when it comes to living a healthier lifestyle is to do what I can, take each week at a time, be mindful of my more unhealthy habits where I can but if some weeks I eat more cheese than I probably should, I’m not going to beat myself up. That’s not to say I don’t take my health seriously, I just personally don’t enjoy exercise goals or denying myself the things that I love. I do enjoy a walk around the harbour with my partner and my dog which (lockdown rules permitting) we try to make a habit of anyway, no New Year’s resolution needed.
A few years ago I accidentally set myself a New Year’s resolution which has since turned into a much loved routine. I was bothered by the fact that I was struggling to find the time to read, something that I really love, and my to-read collection was piling up. So, I decided that I was going to make sure that I set enough time to read eight pages per day. I have no idea where the number eight came from but, with my reading speed, this took approximately 10 minutes - not much time at all. This is a habit that I’m pleased to say has stuck and most days I read more than eight pages. I’d like to stress again that this wasn’t a deliberate New Years resolution, merely a decision to make some more time to do something that makes me happy and is good for my mental health.
As we make our way through 2021 (bearing in mind that some of it is going to be as bizarre and stressful as 2020 was) I think deciding to make more time to do the things that we really love or that help us unwind is vital but this shouldn’t just be a January thing. At any point we can ask ourselves “am I doing enough of what I love?” and if the answer is no we can put little routines in place to change that. At the end of last year I discovered that I really enjoy a good TedTalk so I decided that at the end of every working day, I would go to the TedTalk app and pick one I wanted to watch. It can be on any subject so there’s no pressure for it to necessarily benefit my career growth or change the way I live my life. The only rule is that it takes my fancy at the time I watched a brilliant one entitled Where Are The Baby Dinosaurs? recently!
Of course, if you are the type of person who feels really motivated by setting yourself big goals at the beginning of the year then that’s great. My point is, if you are going to set New Year’s resolutions (or ‘halfway through the year resolutions’ for that matter) they don’t have to add any extra stress to your life or have any other purpose than simply to allow yourself the time to press pause on the world and do something that is just for you, just because you enjoy it. If that happens to be an online exercise class with a goal to become as flexible as possible, great, and it’s equally as great if it’s just parking yourself on the sofa to read eight pages, watch a TedTalk/Youtube video, play a game on your phone or even have a nanna nap.
** If you feel like your alcohol or food intake is unhealthy and you would like to make some changes to these habits then please do so in a safe way. This may involve seeking professional help to ensure that you don’t make any dangerous changes or substitute one bad habit for another.
