What are the most common New Year’s resolutions? To lose weight? Get more fit? Drink less? Something else that has to do with our bodies? Most people don’t commit to being healthier mentally and spiritually. Why? Because committing to a healthier mind and spirit is SO BIG that we don’t know where to start. Still, in the spirit of resolutions I thought I’d share some tips that can help you be have a healthier mind and spirt throughout 2025:
1) Become More Balanced: During Thanksgiving, my uncle asked me, “What are you doing to make sure you age well?” I muttered something about exercise. He responded, “All that exercise is good, but you need to do yoga or something like it to strengthen your balance.”
He's right in more ways than one. Stretching ourselves and building better physical balance is important, but building better emotional, mental, and spiritual balance is even more important. Living in an out-of-balance culture, how do we do balance our lives? The following are practices that can bring more balance to your life:
Get the right amount of sleep—this usually means choosing an earlier bedtime, even if you feel tired and want more time to yourself… go to bed anyway. When we’ve slept well, we feel less burned out and better able to deal with life. Apps like the “Rise” app, can help, but the key is getting more and better sleep. It’s amazing how much it helps.
Eat a better, more balanced diet—this is hard to do in a culture of fast, processed food, but the more balanced and healthier our diet is, the better we feel and can deal with life. A good app for this is the Noom app, which is less a diet and more a cognitive behavioral approach to healthy eating.
Get a healthy amount of exercise—getting a healthy amount of exercise doesn’t mean becoming incredibly fit. It means boosting our health through walking at a relatively high pace several days a week and doing some sort of resistance training—bands, chair exercises, or weightlifting. Having healthier bodies help us deal with life better.
Moderate social media—spending inordinate amounts of time in front of screens is draining. Social media is all designed with algorithms that hook into our addictive centers. They’re powerful much in the way nicotine is: they addict us while leading us to think, “I can quit if I want to… I just don’t want to.” There are other options for boredom—puzzles (I like jigsaws, my wife likes crosswords), reading, chatting with others, and more. Look for substitute activities that are healthier and less addictive.
2) Look for What’s Good: To me, this is foundational to becoming healthier in all facets of life. We live in critical and cynical times about everything: government, church, the Steelers, the Penguins, the police, schools, medicine, science, facts, the world, and pretty much everything else in life. All that cynicism and skepticism, all that looking for what’s wrong, has a deeply unhealthy impact on our lives. It’s like breathing in toxic air all day long that creeps into every capillary of our system.
For a long time, I’ve lived by a more positive mantra: “Look for what’s good, not what’s bad. Look for what’s right, not what’s wrong. Focus on what’s possible not what’s impossible. Embrace what gives life, not what takes it away.” How we look at the world is a choice—a choice that has health impact. You know this already. Think of a time when you were caught in a conversation with someone cynical and couldn’t escape. How did that person impact you? Now think of a conversation you had with someone positive and energetic. How did that person impact you? Looking for what’s good doesn’t mean ignoring reality. It means engaging reality in a way that makes it better.
3) Seek Purpose and Meaning: There’s been a tremendous amount of research on the importance of having a sense of meaning and purpose in life. Purpose is the sense that I am alive for this reason. Meaning is felt when we engage in activities that express that purpose. Seeking purpose and meaning helps us live with intention, especially when engaging in activities and actions that make life better for others.
Looking back on my life and those that I’ve known and worked with, the healthiest ones have always been those who sought purpose and meaning. They’ve pursued a life that’s larger than just them. They look for ways to do good for others. Whatever careers they have—investor, teacher, police officer, retail clerk, janitor, and more—they see their lives as unique service to others and the world. T
4) Deal with Anxiety: Most people are much more anxious than they realize, and both general and specific anxiety can accumulate. Pay more attention to your body and mind and ask if you have anxiety. If you do, resolve to deal with it because anxiety can accumulate and lead to worsening relational and physical problems. There are apps to help, practices that help, organizations that help, and of course our therapists are trained to help people deal with anxiety.
Create More Time for Quiet: It’s amazing how healing and healthy quiet can be. Whether that’s the quiet of a walk, turning off music/talk in a car, sitting on a back porch, hiking in woods, or more, quiet restores us. We live in a noisy culture, and most of us are uncomfortable with quiet because of the combination of boredom and running thoughts. Still, finding time for quiet brings balance and health to our lives.
Pray: Prayer is more than just psychological centering. It connects us with the transcendent, with the “more than,” with God. Praying brings balance to our lives by connecting us with a spiritual realm that wants what’s best for our lives. So, making time for regular prayer and listening is incredibly healing and balancing.
I hope these ideas can help you resolve to live a better 2025! We’re here to help.
Blessings,
Executive Director, Samaritan Counseling, Guidance, Consulting
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