"New Year, New Me". We've heard this before, right? But what if we told you that just because it's a new year, you don't have to change! Many people who make resolution's for the new year tend to forget about them already a few weeks into the new year! It can be quite a shock to the system to completely 'change' or alter yourself from one day to the next. We like to think of resolutions as 'goals and targets'. Therefore, we have put this article together to discuss how to gradually ease into your new goals and targets for 2022.

Bouncing back into the New Year from your relaxing Christmas break can be tough to adjust to. Whether your goal is to eat better, exercise regularly, quit smoking or get promoted, we have put together some tips and steps to help you ease into the new year without being overwhelmed by your new objectives.

Creating new habits takes time and energy. A new behavior won't become automatic overnight, but you may enjoy some of its benefits fairly quickly. A good way to transition into the new year after a well deserved break without feeling anxious is by practicing Mindfulness.

Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us. While mindfulness is something we all naturally possess, it’s more readily available to us when we practice on a daily basis. Whenever you bring awareness to what you’re directly experiencing via your senses, or to your state of mind via your thoughts and emotions, you’re being mindful. And there’s growing research showing that when you train your brain to be mindful, you’re actually remodeling the physical structure of your brain.

Practicing mindfulness for 10-20 minutes a day changes the physiology of the brain. The prefrontal cortex is bigger and more dense after a couple of months of daily mindfulness. Research has found that a regular practice of mindfulness increases the gray and white matter in the parts of the brain that are key to attention and self-control. Mindfulness involves attending to what is happening in the present moment without judgement or analysis. As well as building up the brain’s gray and white matter in critical areas, mindfulness strengthens the connections between the prefrontal cortex and the parts of the brain that we want it to influence, namely those parts that would see us give in to the heady lure of an immediate reward.

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If you have a goal which is relatively big to tackle such as quitting smoking or losing a certain amount of weight, these goals can be quite daunting. Doing too much too quickly will always see a new year’s target struggle to breathe. The more unfamiliar something is, the greater the force to stay the same. Try breaking a big goal (for example, ‘getting healthy’) into smaller chunks that can be tackled one at a time. (Do four 30 minute exercise sessions a week, then when that feels established, move to cutting back on sugar for 3 days a week and then keep going from there. Get the idea?) The same idea as with smoking or any habit that is hard to stop. Try getting outside to help maintain the commitment and motivation to follow your targets.

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Almost certainly, there will be moments of weakness. This is perfectly normal and as the cliche quote states "no one is perfect". When things go smoothly, there is little opportunity for learning. Challenges and mistakes are there as a lesson and if you’re not making them, you’re likely not stretching yourself enough. At some point, probably at many points, it will be two steps forward, one step back. These are not setbacks, they are life, and all a part of the beautiful, messy, imperfect adventure. Every setback contains wisdom that can propel you forward. Be open to this and use the learnings to stand strong, settled in the fierce knowledge that you are closer to your goal than you were yesterday, or any day before now. Moving backwards is all part of getting there, but how the setback is interpreted is pivotal.

Resist the overwhelming urge to interpret the backward step as failure. It’s not. It’s an important part of the process. This will take guts – embracing a setback isn’t easy but it is critical.

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So the New Year has just begun and you have set your year's goal to focus on. Work begins and the start of the hustle and bustle has already started. You have already lost sight of the holiday's rest you just enjoyed. Being thrown back into the action of everyday life can seem overwhelming and it's important to keep in mind of what makes you happy in life. This can be different activities like hanging with your friends, shopping, watching movies or even just sleeping all day long! Life is all about balance. It's important to not get sucked into the minutiaes of everyday life. Don't feel guilty because you maybe partied too much on a Friday night or you slept too long on that Sunday afternoon. Sleep is probably one of the most vital parts to a functioning and healthier life. When you have less than six hours of sleep, the frontal region of the brain (the prefrontal cortex) is much less effective. The prefrontal cortex is critical for making good decisions, planning, considering consequences and resisting temptation. It is a key player in changing habits and is basically the control panel for life. It holds tightly the image of the person we are striving to be, so we can resist the open embrace of short-term gains that will swipe at the long-term ones.