9 Tips for Setting Wellness Goals for 2022

It’s that season again — time to think about your New Year’s resolutions! Make 2022 your “Year of Wellness” by addressing the various aspects of your life that affect your health and happiness. Of course, setting such lofty and generalized goals can be a bit of a trick, especially during the most chaotic time of the year.

Wellness is more than the absence of disease; it is an active pursuit of complete physical, mental, spiritual, and social health. This quest for wellness involves making everyday lifestyle decisions that lead to better overall health — it also requires setting goals, establishing benchmarks, and creating a plan to reach those goals.

1. Create goals that matter to you

Let’s face it — you are more likely to reach goals that mean something special to you. You may not be as enthusiastic about simply improving your metabolism, but you might put your shoulder into it once you realize that boosting your metabolism will help you lose more weight.

To set goals that will inspire you, reflect on what matters to you now, and the benefits wellness can provide you in the upcoming year. You may want to improve your mental wellbeing by learning Spanish for that big trip next autumn, for instance.

2. Set clear, attainable goals

Setting goals creates a path to permanent and meaningful changes to your overall wellness — but only if you set specific goals that you can reach. Creating vague or unrealistic goals can cause setbacks and disappointment. Instead of saying you want to lose weight and exercise more, for example, set specific goals of increased exercise for a half-hour five days a week and losing one to two pounds every week for a year.

3. Set goals that improve several aspects of wellness

Some bad habits affect more than one aspect of wellness, so it stands to reason that accomplishing a single goal can sometimes improve more than one type of wellness. Staring at any kind of screen all day can give you “tech neck,” for example, and cause strain to your back and shoulders. Other issues include eyestrain and mental or emotional effects, such as stress, depression, and loss of productivity. Spending less time on your smartphone or other electronic devices can help improve your physical, mental, and emotional wellbeing.

4. Chart a course for success

Setting goals is not enough — you must create a path to success. If your goal is to manage stress better in the upcoming year, you may practice mindfulness and even stretch every day. A smart path toward stress management should also include scheduled exercise, taking control of stressful environments, paring down your to-do list, and connecting with others.

5. Establish benchmarks

Working toward a meaningful goal often requires effort and persistence; finally, reaching a goal is fun and inspirational. Establishing benchmarks and smaller goals along the way can help you stay positive and motivated throughout the year.

6. Prioritize self-care

Make your health and wellness a priority by improving your diet, staying active, and enjoying the things you love. Address any aches and pains, stressors, and health concerns that may be preventing you from practicing self-care.

7. Develop one healthy habit

Temporary changes can provide immediate effects, but the benefits may wear off as soon as you revert to your old ways. Developing just one healthy habit that lasts a lifetime can create permanent improvements in your overall wellness. Going to bed at the same time every night can improve the quality and quantity of your sleep; for example, high-quality sleep can leave you feeling fresh, healthy, and alert.

Developing healthy habits is neither easy nor quick. Scientific research shows that it can take anywhere from 18 to 254 days for someone to form a new habit.

8. Develop a daily routine and stick to it

Developing a daily routine helps ensure that you’ll set aside time to exercise, eat right, or take other steps toward your wellness goals. Be sure to schedule your favorite hobbies as well as time to relax.

Plan your daily routine with pen and paper or with an app or calendar. You may prefer creating a strict hour-by-hour schedule or simply creating checklists of what you need to do throughout the day.

9. Enrich your diet

Food plays a role in nearly every aspect of wellness, from providing nutrients for your body to rekindling fond memories of traditional family meals. Add healthy, nutritious meals that fuel both your body and your soul.

Creating wellness goals is a great way to make meaningful changes beyond just losing weight or exercising more — they can also help improve your mental, emotional, spiritual, and social being. By setting wellness goals, you can make 2022 one of the healthiest and happiest years yet.

With all the merrymaking of gift-giving, decorating, feasts, and parties, personal wellness can take a back seat during the holidays — there just isn’t time to plan, shop, prep, and cook healthy meals or hit the gym for your daily exercise. Stress can also be a factor, especially if your work life gets busier during the holidays, you are stretched for gift-giving cash, and your family engages in boisterous conversations over the dinner table. All of these factors can affect your wellness.

According to the Global Wellness Institute, wellness is an active pursuit that involves maintaining awareness of the ever-changing factors affecting your health and making choices that lead toward optimal well-being.

There are several dimensions of wellness: physical, emotional, spiritual, social, and intellectual. The holidays can take a toll on your wellness, particularly when it comes to your physical and emotional health. If you aren’t careful, you can come away from the season feeling physically unwell and emotionally exhausted. Fortunately, you can take steps to manage your wellness from Thanksgiving Day through New Year’s Eve.

1. Practice mindful eating

Stress eating, also known as emotional eating, can derail even the best of diets. Stress can cause a surge in cortisol, which is the body’s main stress hormone. High cortisol levels can trigger cravings for sugary or fatty foods. Stress can also stimulate the body’s production of hunger hormones. Mindful eating can combat stress eating.

Mindful eating is an approach in which you pay careful attention to the act of eating with the intention of savoring every moment. In many ways, mindful eating is the exact opposite of stress eating. While mindful eating is not a weight loss diet, it can help you avoid the overeating associated with the holidays.

2. Prioritize sleep

Sleep is important at any time of the year, of course, but it can be hard to find enough time to sleep in the rush to celebrate the holidays. Not sleeping enough, or getting poor-quality sleep, can leave you feeling sluggish, stressed, and in a fog — especially if you add holiday parties and alcohol to the mix.

If you are an adult aged 18 to 64, the National Sleep Foundation recommends that you get 7 to 9 hours of sleep each night.

3. Get up and move

Exercise is an excellent way to alleviate stress and burn those extra calories from holiday dinners and Christmas cookies. In a perfect world, you’ll maintain your regular exercise routine throughout the holiday season. Chances are good, though, that holiday gatherings, changes in work schedules, holiday parties, and late nights will get in the way of your regular workout. If you aren’t getting to the gym as much as you would like, try doing a shortened workout at home or go for extra walks throughout the day.

4. Manage your stress

If you feel pressured by the gift-giving, financial stress, and frenzied pace during the holidays, you are not alone. According to the American Institute of Stress, 69% of people feel stressed about the lack of money and lack of time, and more than half feel the pressures of giving or receiving gifts. Clearly, the holidays are not all sugarplum fairies and cheer for many of us.

Stress can cause a wide variety of symptoms, including headaches and other aches and pains, trouble sleeping, high blood pressure, muscle tension, and more. These symptoms can certainly take the joy out of the season. Fortunately, you can take steps to rein in your holiday stress. These steps may include:

• Practicing mindfulness – Mindfulness is a technique in which you are fully present and aware of where you are and what you are doing, without feeling overly reactive or overwhelmed by your current environment.
• Eating a nutritious diet
• Exercising
• Avoiding alcohol or nicotine
• Identifying and reducing triggers of stress
• Set realistic goals and expectations for the holiday season
• Engage in stretching exercises to release “feel good” chemicals that relieve stress and pain

5. Anticipate family drama

Your family can be a great source of joy throughout the year, but family get-togethers during the holidays can provide ample opportunities for drama. Being around relatives can bring back bad memories, reignite old arguments, and even spark political conversations.

To avoid getting caught in the middle of the drama, be aware of what may trigger conflict and plan how to deal with it when it develops. Find a spot to engage in some meditation, for example, or plan to walk around the block.

6. Practice self-care

During the holidays, you work hard to take care of the decorations, meals, shopping, party planning, and more, but do you care for yourself? Self-care is important to maintaining a good relationship with yourself and for maintaining every dimension of wellness. Try meditation or walking in nature for your emotional wellness, for example. To improve your physical wellness by resolving pain and inflammation, make an appointment for laser therapy.

Most of all, go easy on yourself — we all struggle with the holidays at some point in life, and most of us make a few mistakes along the way. With just a little planning and effort, you can manage your wellness and make this the most joyous holiday season ever.