Simple habits to help you feel great this new year

If you’re feeling like you want to make some changes but don’t want to start something you can’t finish, here are some free and easy things you can do to improve your quality of life.

• Be more sustainable

The planet needs our help and although we know that it’s going to take a lot of work, we have to start somewhere. You can do your part by knowing exactly how to recyle the various household items that go into the different bins and making sure your family know too.

You can also be more sustainable by embracing ‘slow’ fashion – secondhand and vintage shops are growing in popularity every day and are full with incredible items at knockdown prices if you have the patience to find them!

• Visualise your success

What do you want to do this year? No, really. Think about it. What would you do if you knew you couldn’t fail? The best way to visualise yourself doing something is to write it down.

Get a diary or a journal and write out your goals and more importantly, what you need to do to achieve your goals. Manifestation is great but unless you put in the time and effort necessary to reach your goals, they’ll stay on the page.

• Start each day with affirmations

It’s very common to feel extremely motivated at the start of January and to go hell-for-leather towards our goals for a few weeks before inevitably letting things slide.

So, what do you do when things start getting difficult? You get up every morning and declare your intentions for the day and your belief that you can do hard things. You might feel a bit silly at first but stick with it because it works. Click here for some positive affirmations to start every day!

• Move more

Making time to exercise can feel like a chore so why not make a conscious effort to just move more? Call a friend for a walk or run, join a dance class, take the stairs instead of the lift or escalator, try your hand at a new sport or activity like skipping or hula-hooping! You’ll get even more benefits if you do it outdoors.

• Drink more water

It’s not easy to eat well if you’re not the person buying the food but there are still things you can do to help yourself feel better. Instead of having a juice or fizzy drink at lunch, have a bottle of water. Where you can, try baking your treats from scratch so you know what goes into them and can leave out all the extra additives and preservatives. Swap milk chocolate for dark chocolate (70% cocoa or higher) – a square of dark chocolate every day is actually considered to be good for you!

Just these few things alone will make a big difference to your skin and your teeth as well as helping you feel amazing from the inside out.