Building Healthy Habits in 2023

Jessica George on 22 February 2023

At the start of the New Year, it is typical for most people to create New Year’s resolutions in the hope of making the new year better than the old. These News Year’s resolutions are often overly complicated, and it is always disappointing when inevitably you fail at keeping them. Rather than create these resolutions, I would like to offer a few simple healthy habits that you could introduce into your life to build a better 2023.

1.Creating a good sleep pattern

The first healthy habit to introduce into 2023 is a healthy sleeping pattern. Sleep is one of the most important things to keep your mind well and to encourage good habits during your day. While getting the full 8 hours of sleep is not typical for a university student, there are a few good habits you can introduce to your life to get the right amount of sleep, to be both rested enough but also in the right mindset to start your day. Setting an alarm every morning is a good first step to take. Waking up at the same time each morning gets your body into a good routine and helps create that healthy sleeping pattern.

2.Eating well

Eating a balanced diet is important for both the health of your body and your mind. While eating five fruits and vegetables per day may seem daunting, introducing just a few healthier foods into your diet can make all the difference. Replacing just one snack per day with a fruit or vegetable is a good way to start and can make all the difference! Starting small and then building up is the best way to introduce healthy habits into your lifestyle. Another helpful step, to make food easier, is to meal prep and make multiple meals at once to help ensure that you always have dinner available even after long days of studying!

3.Planning

One habit that will make 2023 so much easier is to have a weekly plan. This includes writing down classes, study time, nights out with friends and meal plans. Having everything written down is a simple way to take the stress out of the week and make your life easier. It also means that you will not forget any important assignments or tasks because everything is written down. This is a healthy habit that can make life at university much less stressful. Producing a daily checklist means you can plan a reasonable amount of work to get done every day by setting achievable targets.

4.Taking time for yourself

The most important healthy habit to introduce into 2023 is taking time for yourself. Making sure you schedule time to do the things you love – whether it be reading, watching television, arts and crafts – is important to a healthy balance in your life. Carving out time during your busy schedule to just simply do something you love is a healthy habit that everyone should be introducing to 2023! In my opinion, taking care of yourself is the most important habit that you should keep this year.

50 acts to make someone’s day on Random Act of Kindness Day 2023

Felicity Haslin on 22 February 2023

Following ‘Random Act of Kindness Day’, we can all think about one small way to show kindness to those around us, our environment, and ourselves. It doesn’t necessarily mean going out of our way, but the smallest act could make somebody’s day – or even change their life. Here are 50 ideas; pick a few you think you could swing and make a difference today.

  1. Compliment a stranger
  2. Litter pick
  3. Pay for someone else’s thing
  4. Text someone that you haven’t heard from in a while
  5. Give flowers or chocolates to someone
  6. Get a vegan dessert – trust me, they’re hard to find
  7. Make a meal for your flatmates/housemates
  8. Bake something for your neighbours
  9. Tell your friend something you admire about them
  10. Offer to body double for someone struggling with exams
  11. Leave a nice note
  12. Give your favourite person a hug
  13. Tip the server that’s working hard
  14. Give to a charity shop
  15. Play the UN’s vocabulary game at freerice.com to help feed those in need
  16. Send a care package to someone who needs it
  17. Remember something that bothered you about the system at university or work and draft a proposal to change it
  18. Lend your ear to a colleague having a tough day
  19. Download the Finch app and send your contacts some anonymous support from an adorable bird!
  20. Offer to give someone a lift
  21. Tell someone that you’re thinking of them
  22. Send a handwritten letter or postcard
  23. Arrange a potluck dinner with friends
  24. Bring water, tea or coffee to people working or studying with you
  25. Send a jigsaw or book you’ve finished to a family member or friend
  26. Download the ‘Thought Catalog’ app and use CBT techniques to tackle your negative thoughts
  27. Send a thank you card to a medical professional or surgery that helped you out
  28. Email an old teacher that inspired you or made a difference
  29. Tell your lecturer that you found their lecture interesting
  30. Pick up a piece of litter as you pass on the street
  31. Sign up to donate blood
  32. Re-rack weights lying around at the gym
  33. Give snacks to mail carriers and delivery drivers
  34. Write a kind comment
  35. Order an extra side next time you get takeaway and give it to someone struggling financially
  36. Help people feel less alone by interacting with the community on the HeadHelp app
  37. Check on elderly neighbours
  38. Let someone know you support them when they’re experiencing a conflict
  39. Be a courteous driver
  40. Put a kind sticky note on a mirror in a public bathroom
  41. Leave a message in a library book
  42. Leave a pack of sanitary products in a public bathroom
  43. Smile at an anxious-looking stranger
  44. Download a Kindness Calendar for daily ideas 
  45. Make an extra portion of dinner for someone you know who is feeling overwhelmed
  46. Start a candid conversation with your mates about mental health
  47. Learn what goes in your recycling bin
  48. Get yourself some of your favourite food and share it with friends or family
  49. Take 30 minutes for yourself today
  50. Ask someone how they’re doing – really

A small act of kindness can go a long way. So, why not give one (or more!) of these suggestions a go today, in honour of Random Act of Kindness Day 2023.

Valentine’s Day: The Practice of Self-Love 

Hannah Pickett on 14 February 2023

With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, couples all over the country are being sucked into the commercial pull of roses, teddy bears and dinner reservations. But in this push to declare your love for someone else, there is often little regard for loving yourself. It’s 2023 and it’s time to expand the narrative. 

Self-love is one of the most valuable practices to keep, but it is often one of the hardest. As someone who has recently started a journey towards self-love and self-compassion, here are my go-to tips to get you started on your own journey. 

Invest in a good journal

For me, writing is a form of release. With that, something that has massively helped me become more in tune with myself has been journaling. Taking a few minutes out of each day to jot down any thoughts – positive or negative – allows me to unclutter my mind and feel much less clouded. Along with that, I have found that practising gratitude can be invaluable. In documenting daily achievements, no matter how small, can really help give a positive spin on life. 

Challenge yourself to have a digital detox 

Do you find yourself glued to your phone most of the time and scrolling endlessly on social media? I do too and if anything, it makes my self-esteem worse. It wasn’t until I started introducing digital detoxes into my life that I really realised how addicted to my phone I really was and how damaging that can be. I’m not saying that you should get rid of your phone completely, as these devices can be really great tools. However, if like me, you find yourself slipping into comparison behaviours with others on social media in a negative way, it could be useful to factor in some time out during the day by leaving your phone in a different room. 

Run yourself a soothing bath 

Nothing screams self-care more to me than a hot, steamy bubble bath. I must admit, the bath is probably my most treasured home comfort. But not only that, it is a great place to simply take some time out by yourself and really relax. I personally find that lighting a candle and turning the lights off, does wonders for stimulating the senses and I always come out feeling reams better than when I got in. What’s not to love?

Buy yourself some flowers 

In keeping with the Valentine’s theme, why not treat yourself to some fresh flowers the next time you’re in a supermarket? You don’t need to wait around for someone else to buy them for you, or you may be waiting a while! If, like me, you spend a lot of time in your bedroom, I find that having a bunch of fresh flowers in the corner really helps bring some colour and life to the same four walls and really puts a smile on my face. 

Breathe!

This last one may seem like a given, but I cannot stress this enough. One of the most powerful things that we, as human beings, can do is to take a moment and focus on our breath. Deep breathing really helps to reduce stress, and bring us back to the ground, especially after a difficult day. Even if you simply take one deep inhale and exhale just before you go to sleep, this can really help you to relax. If you’re interested in going a bit further with some longer mindfulness and breathing techniques, there are some brilliant YouTube videos and apps, such as Calm, that are dedicated to guiding you through this process and helping you find your inner peace. 

It can be far too easy to get so wrapped up in loving everyone else that ultimately, you end up forgetting to love yourself! So, this year, let’s dedicate Valentine’s day to loving ourselves and to treating ourselves with all the love and kindness that we truly deserve.

A New Year’s Guide to Journaling

Amelia Averis on 9 January 2023

To reflect, remember, and be creative. Easy ways to ease yourself in journaling in 2023.

‘Journaling’ can sound pretentious, exclusionary, and convoluted, so forgive me. It does, however, seem the fitting word to combine a daily-happenings-and-routine-diary, with rants, song lyrics, and missing chunks – and it’s becoming popular.

Sometimes, all it need be is a list of memorable bits from the week prior, functioning simply to separate moments from monotony in retrospect. Each year, however, a journal will accidentally become more developed and complex as we do more and desperately want to remember it all. Nonetheless, starting the snowball can seem like work.

These are easy ways to ease yourself into full-blown, obnoxiously religious journalling.

Start with a sentence a day

What happened today that separated it from any other day? What is a weird memory you’ll pick out in a year? Not ‘I ate breakfast’ or ‘I went to the gym’. ‘Called mum and spoke about a specific job interview’, ate a meal you don’t usually eat, and someone’s dog came to stay.

Furnish memories

I still so clearly remember an economics lesson that I wrote about because I retold a joke one of the boys made. By writing down that joke, I captured the whole lesson in my memory. You can do this with anything. Pick bits out of conversations, or mental images you’ll want to remember, which table you sat at in the pub, outfits you wore, specific games you played at pres; you’ll be surprised what your brain can remember when it is told to.

Soundtrack

An easy way to journal and capture moments in time is to leave notes to yourself on the music you’re liking at the moment. Just let yourself know, jot it in the margin, it’s an easy time capsule.

‘Things I’ve thought about recently’ and ‘stuff I liked’

…and you don’t have to elaborate. If you don’t want to sit and ‘ponder’, don’t. Podcast wisdom that you liked, a TikTok quote, a realisation you had about your hobbies, ‘I’ve got so much closer with x recently’, I’ve been really liking 70’s music, eating so many olives. You’ve journaled without the faff.

Photos without photos

Capture where you are writing from by drawing your view, or just describe the moment in detail. ‘I can still really taste the garlic from the bruschetta I made, I can hear a house alarm and my incense smells nice’.

Everything goes in

Quotes you like, write it down, receipts, tea-bag packets, notes people left you, fleeting tattoo ideas. Stick in writing you did on other pieces of paper when you had the chance like on the train, copy out stuff you wrote in your notes and when you wrote them.

Let other people do it for you

On holiday I often give my diary to my friends. They write about the day or just say hey, but they sign it and write that they are excited or drunk or tired and it captures a moment without having to recall it the next day.

You can miss days out and then do or don’t binge-write. Don’t be afraid to have chunks missing. Using a blank notebook rather than a diary makes this easier. Just don’t stop! Bullet point the missing chunk in moments you can remember, and carry-on writing.

Seasonal Book Recommendations

Jessica George on 9 January 2023

When the weather turns cold, there’s nothing better than curling up on the sofa with a good book. So, these are my favourite untraditional seasonal book recommendations to get you in the festive spirit!

  1. Just for December by Laura Jane Williams

 This book is the ultimate winter-themed romantic comedy for the season! It’s the perfect fake-dating scenario, where two actors working on a Christmas movie together are forced to pretend to date outside of the set. If you love Christmas movies such as The Holiday and enjoy the fake-dating trope, then this book will be a great read for you.

2. The Christmas Wedding Guest List by Susan Mallery

This book is a great read this Christmas as it includes not one, but two romance stories. It follows two sisters as they navigate finding ‘the one’ while participating in their parents’ vow renewal.  If you love reading about returning to your first love and unexpected relationships, then this is the book for you.

3. Murder at the Theatre Royale by Ada Moncrieff

I always enjoy reading a crime book, and a Christmas-themed thriller is even better! It’s the opening night of A Christmas Carol at the Theatre Royal when ‘Scrooge’ dies onstage, and journalist Daphne King is determined to uncover the truth. This book is set in the 1930s, so it’s the ideal mix of historical fiction and crime thriller, making it a uniquely festive-themed book to read this winter.

4. The Christmas Murder Game by Alexandra Benedict

When Lily returns to endgame house, where her mother died 21 years ago, her aunt presents her with a game. If Lily solves 12 clues to find 12 keys, she wins the deed to the Manor House and her mother’s killer. The games turn deadly, and Lily soon realises that she is not only fighting for an inheritance…but for her life. This book is a page-turner who-dun-it that will keep you gripped until the very end.

5. The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan

This book follows two sisters as they try and save an old bookshop that is on the brink of closing down for good. This book gives all the festive feels, while also focusing on the family relationships between sisters. The stunning descriptions make you dream of a trip to Edinburgh at Christmas time. Ultimately, this book will give you an instant festive feeling which makes it another perfect read for this time of year.


6. Snowed in for Christmas by Sarah Morgan

This book is a hilariously funny and relatable read this Christmas season. Lucy is determined to get a major piece of business from Ross Miller, so she turns up at his house to deliver her proposal. However, things take a turn when she gets snowed in for Christmas with a family that isn’t hers! The Miller siblings are desperate to avoid their parents’ questions and keep their secrets, and Lucy ends up getting caught in a big family blow-out.