January is a time that most of us are buckling down with our new year’s resolutions and trying to improve our lives. We make big changes like switching up our diet, joining the gym and quitting our vices, not realizing that sometimes it’s the smaller or less obvious things that make the most difference. Here are some unexpected ways you can genuinely improve your life.
Declutter your house
Our surroundings have a huge impact on our state of mind- your home will either be reducing your stress levels or adding to them depending on the way they look! You might not even realize it consciously, but a cluttered home has been shown to elevate stress and anxiety levels and can even affect sleep. Decluttering is an ongoing process and something you need to be doing on a regular basis. Perhaps every season you could go through drawers, cupboards and wardrobe, donating or throwing away anything you no longer use. You could even sell items and make some money, but either way, you’ll feel much better for having a cleaner and more organized home.
Eat together with your family
Eating together with your family is more important than you might realize. When everyone has to go their own separate way during the day (work/ school/ uni/ nursery) it’s easy to lose the close bonds you once had. Eating together has been shown to correlate with healthier children, and happier, closer families. Make an effort to cook and eat together on as many evenings as you can. When the weather is warm, you could fire up the barbeque or just enjoy your evening meal outside in the sunshine. Get yourself some decent patio furniture, some waterproof seating like these Fig Leaf cushion covers and spruce up the garden with some solar lights and flowers to make it a pleasant and relaxing place to spend time together.
Get back into education
Most of us couldn’t wait to leave education- when you’re young you’re keen to get out into the world and away from a system that you’ve been stuck in for as long as you can remember. However, as an adult, it’s easy to appreciate education. You get to learn new things, improve your skills and you can use it as a starting point to boosting your career. Education enables you to be productive during your time off and gives you something to work towards and set and smash goals. These are all things that can add value to your life and generally make you feel good. You could go back to university or college, full or part-time. You could study online, or even take a class in a less academic subject. Anything that interests you and helps you improve your skills in some way is worth doing.