Healthy New Year 2022!

I wish you all a Healthy New Year 2022!

Yes, I also wish your 2022 to be Happy, and everything else that you’d like 2022 to be!

However this year I’d like to emphasize health because as I grow older I value my health and the health of my loved ones more and more - our physical health as well as our mental/emotional health.

Almost two years of pandemic have shown us that our general health influences how our organisms handle the potential infection with a new virus, and the lock downs and restrictions have affected the mental health of many around the world.

We all want to be happy, and happiness is grounded in our holistic health. It’s hard to feel happy when we don’t feel well physically or emotionally.

So for 2022, how about working at doing the best we can to improve our physical and emotional health?

Now, as you probably know from experience, simply setting up intentions do not work well because sheer will can only get us so far - usually until the end of January. Why? Because we do what we do - and we don’t do what we don’t do - because it serves the immediate purpose of making us feel better. If my food habits make me feel better in the short-term, sheer will can help me resist my need to feel better for a little while, but sooner or later my survival instinct will kick in and I will go back to the habit that was helping me cope.

If I want to change a habit for the sake of my long-term health, I have to explore what it has been doing for me in the short-term, and I need to first find an alternative to get to the same result. I can not just get rid of my coping strategies and hope that I’ll suddenly be able to live without its positive effect on my well-being.

Take sleep for example. Most of us know that we need around 8 hours of sleep per night to feel well the next day, and be healthy in the long-term. If I go to bed too late - fully knowing that “it’s not good for me” - I do this for a good reason: I might need that extra time to feel better right now, and that immediate need takes priority over the knowledge that I need more sleep to feel well tomorrow. So, what is so needed right now that I’m staying up watching one more episode or browsing another hour on my phone? Do I need a bit of fun after a long day of work? The sensation of freedom? Avoiding painful feelings?

If we want to make more time for sleep for our longer-term well-being and health - and therefore start going to bed earlier - we’re going to have to find another way to get these needs for fun, freedom, and emotional processing met. It will have to be scheduled earlier in the day, which is complicated to do given how busy our lives are.

And we’ll have to go through this inquiry for each small change we want to make to improve our health. As you can see, it’s a bit more involved than making a New Year resolution!

So first off, pick just one thing that could make a big difference for your physical and/or mental health. Could be a bit of extra sleep, one change in your food/drink intake, doing something fun every day, etc. Pick just one. Investigate what your less healthy habit has been doing for you and come up with a few new ideas to get these needs met in a more healthy way. Ask friends and family for their tips! Then work with a few ideas for so long as it takes to find something that could effectively replace the habit you want to change.

This one practice could be your project for the Year 2022.

Giving priority to your health is the best investment you can make - for yourself and your loved ones. Remember what the flight attendants say during safety briefings: “Put your oxygen mask on before helping others”. When you take better care of yourself, you release the burden for others to take care of you, and you are better equipped to assist others when they need support. It starts with you. And it can start with something as small as going to bed 30 minutes earlier, taking a daily 20-min walk, drink a bit more water, or scheduling a deep breathing pause after lunch.

One small step at a time.

Wishing you a Healthy New Year 2022!