My New Year’s resolutions for a beautiful year

There’s always something exciting about January that makes us feel truly compelled to start something new. Whether it’s taking on new career, health or relationship prospects it’s certainly a very invigorating time of the year.

While change can be quite good and very empowering it serves us best to be done gradually in small steps instead of taking drastic measures. After all self improvement is a life long journey not a destination. Taking good care of ourselves is not just a simple goal its a long life commitment to give ourselves more love and respect that leads to more confidence, self esteem and ultimately happiness. To achieve a more fulfilling life small health choices need to be made but, one at the time so, I hope I can inspire you with my new year’s choices toward a more beautiful 2020:

Cutting down on sugar

I find this most difficult as I can’t stop myself from adding a few extra sweet packets (being biscuits or cakes) to my shopping trolley at every shop. However I am committed to choose substitutions like dry fruit, nut snacks, chocolate free cereal bars and ditching sugar in hot drinks. This I am sure will help a lot as sugar is most harmful for the body on so many levels. It actually accelerates the ageing process.

Eating a more plant based food

A rich plant based diet has great pay offs for fitness, energy and reducing inflammation. I mainly eat a plant based diet and I love it a lot. This year I will take this commitment further and try new foods that I am not so keen on but are highly nutritional like: quinoa, brown rice, millet, tofu and other new flavours. Having a plant based diet it’s not only better for us but it also places less stress on the environment. This is definitely a win-win situation.

Practicing more daily meditation

I would love to think that I always have the perfect day but that it’s no quite so. For most of last year I used to start my day with 15 minutes of meditation but eventually I started to check the news even before I started to meditate and that stressed me no end. This year my commitment is to start to meditate before I start my day and keep this practice throughout the year. Research has proven that meditation has an amazing power to ease stress and anxiety, boost immune system, improve focus and quality sleep even helps you to achieve your goals. Even just 10 minutes every morning does make a difference for a calmer day and rejuvenated soul.

Reducing stress

It’s no joke when we say stress actually kills. So paying attention to it, it’s a must if you’re after being in top mental and emotional shape like me. Creating more moments for a beauty treat or two, listening soothing music, reading a book and not feeling guilty about taking time off. This is going to be a challenge for me no doubt!!

Maximising beauty sleep

Sleep is major factor for cellular growth and repair. It improves memory recall, regulates the metabolism and reduces mental fatigue. Of Course it also impacts how your skin looks too. My aim is to set a beauty sleep ritual starting with proper rmake-up removal with my The One Balm which I already do and love so much. Other things I will add to this: opting for sleeping on a silk pillow instead to maintain skin’s moisture levels. Apparently this is a great tip if you fancy waking up every morning with smoother and frizz-free hair. To this ritual I will add chamomile tea and of course I will be applying my Sleepy Halo Roll On.

Recycling more waste

UK aims to see 55% of households reducing waste by the end of this year. This is something I do take seriously and I love it, it really makes me feel good about myself. From recycling all (food waste, bottles, tins, cardboard, paper, plastic bottles and not forgetting my amber beauty jars that are washed, sterilised and re-used. I already donate unwanted furniture, textiles, shoes and books to charity, so nothing much goes to waste. I am very conscious about throwing food away so I always take care not to cook too much to go to waste or just cooking enough for a few meals this way, I get to save some energy too.

One new thing I would like to do is donating usable food to the foodbank donation bins found at my local supermarket. Welfare changes has driven rising poverty and foodbanks have seen 30% increase in demand. I truly hope that the government looks into this and changes the system to end the need for the foodbanks in the first place. The foodbank essentials’ initiative can easily be found at Sainsbury’s so, you too can get involved and together we can make a positive difference and help brighten someone’s life.

My aim is to keep doing what already works for me and challenge myself an extra mile or two. This is my journey. What about yours? What challenges are you setting for yourself in 2020?