The “new year, new you” mindset and mental health
New Year's resolutions may be popular, but only a small fraction of people follow up on these plans for personal growth. One survey counted only about 8% of respondents following through with their New Year's promises.1
Even if the goals you set are helpful, in theory, the low success rate of following through can set you up for disappointment. As such, New Year’s resolutions can often end up being counterproductive and potentially harmful to mental health.
This may be especially true for people who set incredibly lofty goals at the start of the year. Of course, it can be easy to see this as a natural occasion for a fresh start. But setting goals you aren’t likely to fulfill may result in low self-esteem, feelings of inadequacy and failure, and depression.
Putting this kind of pressure on yourself—then failing to live up to it—can be unhelpful for mental well-being in general but may be especially bad for those who are struggling with an eating disorder or are in recovery.
New Year’s resolutions, weight loss, and eating disorders
It's not just making promises to change that can be problematic, but the types of promises being made that can be detrimental to mental health.
Year after year, the most common resolutions revolve around exercising more, changing one's diet, and/or losing weight.2 The desire for self-improvement can be a positive force for change, but in many cases, these goals are related to unrealistic beauty standards set by diet and fitness culture, which focus on achieving an image rather than improving actual health.
Calls to join the trend likely come from all angles: friends, family, social media, marketing emails, commercials, ads, and gyms offering new membership specials. This can lead to immense pressure to participate, regardless of what a medical professional may say. Making resolutions around weight loss has become tied to the diet and fitness communities and is often disguised or discussed as a form of self-care.
Yet, many people turn to disordered eating behaviors to achieve these unnecessary goals. These can include fad diets that have nothing to do with the person's actual health, exercising excessively, worrying about "compensating" for “cheating” on a diet or even using anabolic steroids to achieve a certain physique. If left unaddressed, these actions can escalate to disordered behaviors or thoughts and full-blown eating disorders.
Better goals to set for the new year
Goals can be helpful tools for long-term growth, guiding us in a direction and offering a sense of purpose. But in the day-to-day, there are many other things that can make us happy, such as:
- Enhancing our relationships and social connections (quality over quantity)
- Expressing daily gratitude
- Practicing compassion for ourselves and others
- Doing things that bring us pleasure and joy
- Practicing regular acts of kindness
- Investing in memorable experiences, such as a trip or vacation
By prioritizing things like gratitude rather than the desire to make a "fresh start," you can focus on the things you already have that make you feel good. This helps take the focus off a future that hinges on conditional happiness ("I'll feel better once I lose five pounds."), and instead helps you concentrate on a present of genuine happiness.
Ditch New Year’s resolution day
New Year’s resolutions aren’t the only option for improving your life. And you don’t have to start in the new year, either. After all, the new year is just an arbitrary date. You can start improving your well-being at any time.
There are a few practices that can be started as soon as you want them to, and they don't require you to lose weight or make other unrealistic goals to find happiness.
Practice mindfulness
One of the best ways to improve mental health in the new year—or at any time—is to practice mindfulness.
The concept describes the act of tuning into the present moment and all the sensations that accompany it. This can be achieved through different types of breathing, meditation, and other strategies. The overall idea is to separate from the ideas you tell yourself about what is happening and to experience what is truly happening.
Mindfulness can be applied to any number of activities.
Mindful eating involves engaging all five senses while having a meal, expressing gratitude for where the food came from and how it arrived on your plate, and savoring the moment. Again, the idea is to enjoy the meal rather than worry or overthink about the implications of eating or what you're eating. And the practice has even been tied to healthy improvement in eating habits.
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Mindfulness can also extend to movement. Instead of exercising to achieve an outcome, mindful movement involves participating in physical activity with full awareness. It means paying attention to how your body feels as it moves. It’s even better if you enjoy the activity you’re doing. This can help encourage you to explore activities you love and would like to do, even if they don't burn calories or tone your muscles.
Cut out comparing and criticizing yourself
If you are in recovery from an eating disorder and you’re going to eliminate anything in your life, a better route to take would be to stop comparing yourself to others. Long-entrenched habits and the omnipresence of social media can make this a difficult task, so be easy on yourself, too. You may want to tweak who you're following on social media, try staying off social media altogether for a while, or talk to a therapist for additional help.
Avoiding self-criticism is another helpful way to work on self-love. This includes staying away from negative comments (either thought or spoken) about your looks, weight, and food preferences. Self-criticism is often a habit formed over many years, so it can be difficult to break. But learning to love and accept yourself as you are can be a powerful tool against the type of thoughts that lead to eating disorders and other mental health concerns.
Use positive affirmations
Positive affirmations are another way to help boost mental health and build the strength to avoid unhelpful trends.
The best positive mantras should be personal to you and your journey. But here are some to get you started:
- I deserve love, respect, and kindness.
- My past behaviors do not define me.
- My worth does not depend on my weight or size.
- I will treat myself with the same compassion I grant others.
- I deserve to eat foods that bring me joy.
You may want to write your mantra down and hang it in a place where you’ll see it every day. Reading it out loud to yourself is also helpful, especially while you're looking at yourself in the mirror.
Positive affirmations can help increase self-esteem and better manage difficult emotions, such as anxiety, depression, guilt, anger, or resentment. And remember, you don’t have to begin these practices under the guise of a New Year’s resolution. You can simply start doing this practice because it makes you feel good.
Finding better mental health in the new year
The idea of baby steps is more important than changing everything at once as part of a resolution. Positive change is possible, but it happens one day at a time, and if you need help along the way, there are many options.
Help is within reach
At Within, we can provide the kind of support you need to recover from an eating disorder or battle through unhealthy thoughts or behaviors around weight and appearance.
Our online treatment program is designed to be followed online or wherever you can access the internet, and our clinical care team will work with you to outline and meet goals at your own pace while supporting you every step of the way.
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