5 LIFE IMPROVING RESOLUTIONS ANYONE CAN KEEP

Tired of Breaking Resolutions? Here are 5 You Can Keep!

Bonus, they're all going to make your life better.

Make a decision to drink more water. You don't have to swear to down 10 glasses a day or 64 ounces or whatever. Just drink more than you're drinking now. You can do that. My favorite method is to buy myself a great water bottle, and then just try to get into the habit of keeping it with me wherever I go. I borrowed this habit from author friend Gayle Callen.Benefits: Dry skin vanishes, as a healthy complexion takes over. Your hair gets less dry, more silky and smooth. You'll eat less as if by magic, because lots of times we feel hungry, we're actually thirsty and don't know it. You'll detoxify your body. Feel more energized, and be healthier overall. *Hint: try not to use bottled water, as it's ‘dead.' Living water, happy, non-chlorinated water is best. Learn more about water in this fantastic video, THE SECRET OF WATER

2. Browse the Internet Standing Up.

If you can reconfigure things so that you are browsing the net standing up, it will become your favorite new habit. I have literally stacked books on top of my with the computer on top of them, so I could work standing up. One California school district replaced their old desks with desks where one could either work standing or sitting, and test scores went up 15%.Benefits: Excellent for back pain, improves digestion, keeps you alert and alive, improves circulation, burns more calories than sitting down, improves metabolism, and just feels great.Hint: They say sitting is the new smoking. Sitting all day is killing us. I now have a treadmill under my desk, so I can walk or stand. Break it up, work a little sitting down, then a little standing up. It's good for you!

3. Use a Smaller Plate.

In the documentary, IN DEFENSE OF FOOD by Michael Pollan, who has a book by the same name that I highly recommend, they ran an experiment where they had people help themselves to food. Then they made up some reason about why the food was cold, took it all away, and asked everyone to go back and get themselves a fresh serving. Only this time, they gave them smaller plates. People ate WAY less.Benefits: Lose weight without even trying! No need to count calories, or weigh or measure. Just use a smaller plate. I love psychology!Hint: In the same program, they noticed that if you put the fruits and vegetables first in a buffet lineup, people eat more of them. One school district went from 25 lbs of carrots per month, to 75 lbs of carrots per month just by putting them at the beginning of the food lineup!

4. De-clutter

I can't tell you how much de-cluttering is changing my life. It's an ongoing project of mine, but my house seems to be sighing in relief as I donate and throw away tons and tons of unnecessary stuff. I feel lighter. My energy feels better. It's far easier to keep the house neat and tidy now. And it's easy, because you just do it a step at a time. My declutter guru is Marie Kondo, whose book, The Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up is a godsend.Benefits: Your house stays cleaner. You can find what you're looking for. You save time usually spent hunting to do other, fun things. You are more organized. And believe it or not, getting rid of clutter makes room in your home for wonderful things to come in.Hint: Just take it one little bit at a time. Do it by categories. First, clothes, for example. But when you do clothes, do all the clothes in the house, not just one closet or dresser at a time. This is far more effective. Baseline: if it doesn't make you smile or feel joy, toss it.

5. Let it Go!

Find or make a pretty box. Make it special. Make it sacred. Beside it, put a little notepad and a pen. They can be special too if you want. Name it. Call it your God Box or your Spirit Box or your Higher Power Box or your Universe Box. Then, when stressful things happen in your life, things that you can't fix on your own, things that keep you awake at night, write them down, fold them up, kiss them goodbye, and put them in the box. When you do this, you are handing it over to your higher power.Benefits: Lowering stress improves every aspect of your life. When you surrender things you can't change to a higher power, it takes the weight of it off your shoulders. There's a psychological benefit to letting go and letting God. And besides that, it actually works.

Hint: The more you believe, the more effective this method will be. Try it first with a couple of small problems that you have an easier time believing could just evaporate on their own. Once you see that it works, your belief will be stronger, and you can apply it to bigger and bigger problems. 

So that's it! My 5 Easy to Keep New Year's Resolutions! Do you have resolutions of your own? Suggestions for easy ones to share? Let me know in Comments!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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