The entire year of 2020 has been a very stressful experience for everyone all over the world. The events that happened throughout it, such as COVID-19, and the experiences surrounding the presidential election have caused an increase in anxiety and depression for people everywhere. Quarantine especially has caused stress for so many people, and unhealthy habits have emerged from consistently being inside away from friends and family due the pandemic. Taking care of yourself is one of the best things that can be done to reduce stress levels and even small things such as making your bed in the morning and eating a full diet can be really helpful for you. It may be difficult to fully get into a new habit when first starting, but with these tips you will be on your way to ending this year in a happy and healthy way.
Here are five healthy habits you should practice by the end of 2020!
- Drink a Glass of Lemon Water as Soon as You Wake Up
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Water is a very important need for the body, it enhances your skin, helps with your metabolism, and overall just helps you feel more refreshed. As soon as you wake up in the morning you should drink a tall glass of iced lemon water to start off your day right!
Water itself has many benefits to helping the body, especially in hydration. Your body perspires during the night while you sleep and drinking water first thing in the morning is an immediate help with rehydration. It also plays a role in digestion because it helps in moving around the lower bowels for regularity. Water also helps dilute and remove toxins in the blood which can contribute to healthy glowing skin.
Lemon water is also great for the body because of the Vitamin C in lemons. Vitamin C can help contribute to an improvement in skin quality and can reduce wrinkling in the skin, sun damage, and dry skin from aging. It can also play a role in improving your immune system. Vitamin C has been known to reduce risks of certain diseases and it can also limit or even prevent the duration of a cold.
This is one of the most important habits to take up due to the health benefits that it gives!
- Take a 10-15 Minute Walk Outside Everyday
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Walking outside once a day for at least 10-15 minutes can have great effects on your overall health. It’s great with strengthening your bones, preventing heart diseases, and can lower stress levels. Walking outside can also help you feel more connected in the community. You may get a chance to say hi and catch up with some neighbors (or students) or just check out the weather for the day.
Some major benefits of walking everyday is the reduce in blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, and body mass index (BMA). Walking for just a minimum of 20 minutes a day can help significantly with these common problems in your body.
Walking is also good for lowering your stress levels and improving your overall mood. Nature walks are great for releasing endorphins and improving your mood and mental state almost immediately. Overall, small walks throughout the day is another great healthy habit to take up before the year is over.
- Keep a Small Journal to Write Down All of your Thoughts
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Journaling is one of the most positive things that you can do for yourself. Not only is it great for reducing stress, but it is also well known with improving your overall mood. Journaling can be for positive or negative thoughts, events, and moods, it’s whatever you need to help yourself. Writing down your feelings at least once a day can help you look back and see any potential triggers, problems, fears, concerns, or stresses that you may have. It can also be a good thing to look back on to see your good days, bad days, sad days, ordinary days, or even what you considered the best days of your life.
Journaling is great for your mental health becuase you can get out all of your feelings on paper and look back to access those feelings later on. Overall, it is a great thing that you can do for yourself and it gives you more of an insight to see who you really are when you are going through certain moods and situations.
- Get in the Kitchen!
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Cooking is one of my personal favorite stress relievers, especially since quarentine started. Preparing and cooking your own food has many great health and mental benefits for you. Cooking is an act of mindfullness, patience, and an outlet for creative expression. It is also good because it can provide an increase in self esteem when presenting a meal you created to loved ones or even to yourself. It also allows you to experiment with foods that you love and it gives you more of an opportunity to try healthy dishes that you might’ve not had a chance to expose yourself to, depending on where you live (college, etc).
For college students that live on campus, I would suggest exploring more of the foods that the dining hall have to offer! Try some of the vegan options, dig into some more vegetables, try foods that you might’ve not even heard of! Use the dining hall as an opportunity to get out of your comfort zone and try new foods!
- Take Small Technology Breaks a Couple Times a Week
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Technology breaks are something that are less common within the college community, but they are one of the most healthy things that you can do for yourself! Technology has affected numerous college students in ways that cause anxiety and depression. The feeling of being “connected” online with your friends is great but overuse of technology can cause negative emotions.
Some great things that you can do when taking these small breaks are going for walks without your phone, spending a day with your friends or family without being on your phone consistently, or even taking one to two hour breaks from your phone once a day. It is known that taking these small breaks are actually great for you and your mental health becuase it can make you feel more present when out in social situations, help deepen connections with people, improve your sleep, and even improve your productivity and learning habits. It is also nice to feel more like you are part of real life instead of the life that is just on your phone.
Overall, these five healthy habits are good starting points on improving the end of the year 2020. We have had a rough start to this year and it has taken a toll both physically and mentally on everyone all over the world. Although there are few things we can actually contribute to change out in the world, we can 100 percent start changing ourselves and our previous bad habits and turn those into great, new, positive habits. Despite these tips above, the one true thing that you can do as a service to yourself and your health, is to do the things that make you happy. Happiness goes hand in hand with health and if you are not doing what makes you happy then these tips might not work best. Do you, be the best version of yourself that you can be, find your happiness and safe space and run with it!