7 WAYS TO IMPROVE YOUR LIFE, MENTAL HEALTH AND BECOME THE BEST VERSION OF YOURSELF

As cheesy as people make the statement “new year new me” seem, how about this time we took the term seriously and actually went on a road to becoming the best version of ourselves

Making the intention to retrain our mind and become more intentional about self-love and self-motivation

How about we start this new year in ways that will challenge us and help us grow to the best of our ability and maybe in future teach others how to do the same

However, as we embark on this journey, it is important to know that life is all about progression and not perfection, no one is perfect and no one will ever be

So, it is my honor to help you make progress in life and become the best version of yourself that you could possibly be. So here are 7 tips you can add to your daily routine if you already haven’t

I must note however that ,I am not a mental health expert I just implemented these routines to my life and they have helped me and still help me to become the best version of myself daily

 Words of affirmation to yourself- in a world that is full of people with loud opinions about others especially with the growth of different social media platforms, and boy are they really loud about it

From our body to the color of our skin, hair texture, you name it

It is important to one’s soul and mental health to at least buy a journal or even write it down on a piece of paper every morning on the great things you love about yourself before you speak to anyone.

Or, how about having the first words you hear about yourself be words of affirmation from your own mouth through a whisper before jumping out of bed

In that way, when someone comes with bad energy or negative opinions at any time during the day

You would have already motivated yourself and affirmed yourself on how you really feel about who you are so much so that one’s negative opinion will matter

Which leads me to my second point

Limit your phone/ social media usage- this is one of the most challenging things to do in today’s world because most of the information we need is on the internet

From trends, to the latest news, and it’s even more sad because we live in a fast-paced world that we could be notified of even up to at least 10 trending stories in one hour

We’ve become so addicted to our phones that we fail to engage with our friends and family on a deeper and emotional level

Because we are so focused on the superficial world that ninety-nine percent of the people are posting about. As difficult as is it to reduce on it in the beginning

Ask yourself these question before opening any application,

1. Is this going to make me improve on my growth today?
2. How will this benefit my purpose in life?
3.  Will me scrolling through this app make me feel confident about myself?
4. Will this be a hinderance for me to accomplish my goals if I give this my full attention?

    And whatever answers you come up with should you then decide if it is worth it or not

Which leads me to this

Taking regular solo walks- instead of spending hours on social media, how about we replace that time with long walks instead

A very excellent way to reconnect with yourself and as well as connect with nature or your surroundings

Also, a great way to make yourself self-aware of things that needed to be changed in your life because at that moment it’s just you and your thoughts

And a lot people don’t even realize that long walks are a great way of toning your body as well as keeping fit apart from improving your mental health

Because it improves blood circulation to your brain, so with this implementation, it will be killing two birds with one stone.

Listening to any motivational speaking program- if you don’t feel like doing some self-reflection on your walk that day, why not listen to something positive instead

From podcasts, ted-talks, YouTube motivational sit-downs you name it, if you must listen to a voice of someone else, make sure that voice is speaking positivity into your world

It is important to remember that growth not only happens by our thoughts alone but also what we feed our mind body and soul through other people’s perspective.

As not all motivational talks resonate with everyone, so it is important to find the ones that fit your niche and mostly in areas in your life that you feel need a lot of improvement

It is also encouraging listening to people who are professionals or experts who are already accomplished in areas we aspire to be someday.

 Decluttering and cleaning up your space- as cliché  as this sounds it really makes a huge difference in people’s lives

Research has gone to show that people are more productive and work efficiently when their space/ environment is clean

So start by making your bed in the morning, washing and putting away dishes after a meal and don’t forget to do your laundry lol

As much as it feels like a waste of time in the beginning doing these seemingly little chores because let’s face it, we all go through episodes of “ I will clean it when I need it” moments

But this it helps your brain declutter and train it  to be more scheduled in doing chores

In this way, you also train your mind to be more organized and goal oriented because we can all admit that accomplishing our small to do lists really makes us feel accomplished at the end of the day regardless of how small the list was.

Eating healthy- I know this one really frustrates people because we all don’t know where to start from with it

but how about you try this, slowly start swapping out your non nutritious foods with nutritious ones, example like refined sugary foods with fruits

Instead of eating out every so often why don’t you try cooking food from home, in that way, it will save you a lot of money too or instead to eating a lot of fried foods why don’t you grill them instead

However, it is important to give yourself some grace when it comes to this, not everyone can fully go all in when it comes to changing their food choices but making simple daily changes does the trick

And in no time, it will become a habit, and once in a while when you crave that fried chicken, please by all means eat that fried chicken

Don’t be so hard on yourself- like I mentioned before, life is about progression and not perfection, it’s important to know that we are going to make mistakes along the way some mistakes that we didn’t even think we were capable of doing,

The most expected thing to do when that happens is talk bad of ourselves and shine light on the already existing insecurities that we have within us, but

How about from today we learn to be lenient on ourselves. We are not perfect, everyone makes mistakes, and it shouldn’t be the reason to be hard on ourselves, instead

From today acknowledge your mistakes and then make sure you write down ways that will help you grow from them, in that way

It’s easier for you to give yourself grace and also help you build a positive outlook on life, which leads me to my next point.

Journaling- a best way to keep record of how far you’ve come and have gratitude towards things that have happened in your life

Journaling also helps release mental stress that has been hanging in the brain for too long, cause in writing down your emotions and goals

It’s easier for you to put them on record before you forget about them and it’s also so much fun having to look back at all the hopes and dreams that you wrote years ago

And reading them in a place of accomplishment and also having to show to people how much you believed in yourself

Aside from that, journaling is also a very excellent way to keep your life organized because in that way

It gives you a healthy challenge and motivation on yourself to set goals and a timeline on when you feel you will achieve them, so try it and see how much stress-free you feel after.

It is very important for us to remember that self-love starts with us, and when we give ourselves self-love

It is easier to have good mental health and even easier for us to not be defined by society’s standards because we have set the standards that we feel are best for us

I really hope these tips help you and guide you into a new chapter of your life where you feel confident in your own skin

Because they have worked tremendously for me since I have added them into my life routine, and I can confidently tell you that I feel whole and finally comfortable in my own skin

After years of self-doubt and demotivation, and they have most importantly helped me discover my purpose in life, and I hope they do the same for you.