Healthy ideas for your inbox
The new year has arrived: Your friends are posting their resolutions, your book club has reset the annual goal, and there’s a sense of change in the air.
Don’t know what your resolution will be? Don’t want a resolution at all? Don’t stress — this January, use this list as a daily guide to start the year committing to self-care.
If you don’t do everything on this list, that’s OK: The first step is getting started.
Day 1: Set an intention
It’s not always possible to make significant changes to your life overnight, so declaring that this is the year you’ll hit the gym every morning might not be the best strategy.
Instead, use the new year as an opportunity to reflect on your health and habits and set intentions, or broad guiding principles, about what you’d like to be doing moving forward. The intentions that you set should be something that you care about so you will be motivated to pursue them.
Wondering how this works?
Say your intention is to waste less this year. You can focus on plans that minimize the chances of creating extra waste, such as opting out of a shopping trip with friends to avoid the temptation of buying new things, participating more in your neighborhood Buy Nothing group or cooking at home rather than going out.
Day 2: Drink a mocktail
If all the holiday parties and New Year’s celebrations have you wanting to be alcohol-free for a while, take this day to enjoy a mocktail and consider participating in Dry January. Maybe you’ve been sober-curious for a while, or you just want to know how your body feels (or how much money you’ll save) without drinking.
You don’t have to be a regular drinker to be sober-curious. Whether you enjoy the occasional glass of wine when you’re out with friends or like a beer every night after work, take this day to think about your relationship with alcohol.
Day 3: Go to bed early tonight
The start of the year is chock-full of new ideas and busy energy. If during the time you should be cozying in your bed, you find yourself doing, well, anything else, take this day to reevaluate that habit.
Whether you feel most productive when the house is quiet or get a sudden burst of motivation to rearrange your closet at midnight, know that putting off your sleep can harm your health.
Take a moment to draft a consistent schedule so that you can do what you need to do during the day to make sure you can prioritize your sleep (not the kitchen that needs cleaning) when the time comes.
Day 4: Attend a local trivia night
Between the 4 p.m. darkness and the non-stop rainy days (if you’re here in the Pacific Northwest), the winter months make it incredibly easy to isolate. However, prolonged feelings of loneliness and isolation can actually be bad for your health.
Fight the urge to curl up in bed, find a small group of friends and have fun. Even if it feels hard to go out, your brain will thank you.
Day 5: Strengthen your core with a bodyweight exercise
Even if you’re not a gym or workout enthusiast (and don’t intend to become one this year), take today to consider the benefits of strengthening your core muscles. The purpose of building core strength isn’t to create washboard abs — unless that’s your thing — but to help increase your overall stability and balance and improve your posture.
Plus, if you have nagging back pain from working at your desk all day, building core strength can help reduce that, too — no gym membership needed. Try doing some bodyweight exercises, like planks, crunches or bird dogs, to get those muscles working.
Day 6: Try a different type of protein
Chicken, beef and fish aren’t the only proteins that can fill you up — try going plant-based today. Not only are these options more sustainable, but they have an array of health benefits.
Swap your go-to meat with legumes like beans, lentils or peanuts, or a soy alternative like tofu. Not ready to go entirely plant-based, even for a day? Eggs and dairy products are also good options.
Day 7: Take a 15-minute break
Are you getting back into the swing of work after taking time off for the holidays? The temptation might be to power through your overflowing inbox or schedule back-to-back meetings to catch up on everything.
Instead, take a moment today to identify times during the day when you can take intentional breaks to refresh and recharge. Taking breaks helps you maintain your mental (and physical) health. Go for a walk, call a friend, watch a funny video or do whatever you need to have a few minutes that aren’t focused on your to-do list.
Day 8: Schedule a friend date
Remember how much fun you had on trivia night? Use this day to plan some friend dates in advance and try to make spending time with the people you love a regular endeavor.
Being a working adult with a busy schedule, kids, a partner or any other combination of time-intensive commitments can make it hard to plan time with friends. But remember, friendships increase your lifespan, reduce inflammation and stress, and boost your mental health. Go on, text a friend and get something on the books.
Day 9: Go on a ruck
If your daily walk has started feeling a bit stale, it’s not too late to jump on one of last year’s standout fitness trends — rucking, i.e., carrying a weighted pack on your back to intensify your workout.
If you’re not currently exercising or running, start small with light weights, or try walking without any weights at first.
Day 10: Sort through a pile of clutter
New year, same home? Sounds like it’s time for a refresh.
You can tackle your whole space. Sort through cabinets and dressers and remove any unnecessary clutter. Consider donating anything you don’t need.
Day 11: Relax with an adult coloring book
Coloring books aren’t just for kids — they’re a great stress-relief tool and an easy way to improve mindfulness.
You don’t have to color for hours; try spending a few minutes filling in some shapes between work meetings or before a phone call. Put the coloring book somewhere visible so it’s ready when you are and enlist a friend to color with you for bonus points.
Day 12: Buy (or adopt) some indoor plants
Put the final touches on your home refresh by getting some indoor plants.
It’s not just aesthetic — houseplants can reduce symptoms of stress and anxiety and can help purify the air. If you don’t want to spend a lot of money on new plants, look at local online marketplace groups, where people often search for places to rehome their plant babies.
Day 13: Write a poem
Use today to tap into your inner wordsmith. Art is therapeutic and fun, and there is no pressure to be the next Emily Dickinson.
If writing a poem feels difficult, try journaling, writing a short story or anything else that comes to mind. Creative writing is a great mindfulness practice and can help you tap into deeper thoughts and emotions.
Day 14: Learn your sleep chronotype (and adjust accordingly)
You might be a night owl or a morning lark, but what does that actually mean for you? Use the day to learn more about your sleep-wake cycle, and from there, decide if you need to bring more light into your life to keep you awake or if you need to readjust your bedtime to feel better throughout the day.
Day 15: Cancel a plan you're dreading
Congrats on making it halfway through the first month of the year; this calls for a much-needed breather.
You’ve done a great job at work, staying active, practicing mindfulness and scheduling plans with friends, so take this as a sign (and permission) to cancel an upcoming plan you aren't feeling up for. That dinner party, work mixer or social gathering can wait — today, you focus on you.
Day 16: Make time for sex
You took time to prioritize yourself yesterday, and today, it’s time to prioritize your sex life.
Reflect on the expectations you have around sex, if you like the sex you’re having and other factors that could be impacting your time in bed, from medications to stress levels and everything in between.
One of the best ways to increase your sex drive is to make sure you’re having good sex by communicating with your partner about what gives you pleasure. So be honest about what you like — and make some time to go get it.
Day 17: Listen to your favorite song
Put on some headphones today and turn on your favorite playlist. Music triggers the release of dopamine in the brain, which can help improve mood levels and reduce symptoms of physical pain or emotional distress associated with it.
The right song sets the perfect mood. If you’re continuing yesterday’s sex-plorations, find a steamy playlist. If you need a good cry, find your go-to sad songs. Let the music transport you into a different headspace and spend the day deepening your brain-body connection.
Day 18: Plan a vacation
Daydreaming about warmer weather? Now might be the perfect time to use your vacation time and plan some time off of work for the spring or summer.
Spend the day thinking about whether a staycation is in order or researching places you’d like to visit.
Day 19: Read (or listen to) a new book
Give your brain a break today by carving out some time to read. Whether it’s a book that’s been on your to-be-read list for months or a title you picked up on a whim during your last bookstore visit, spending time with a book not only has a calming effect but also strengthens your brain function, reduces your heart rate, decreases your blood pressure and helps you build empathy (yes, really).
Also, don’t let anyone tell you differently — audiobooks count as books, too. Listen to a good memoir or fantasy novel while driving, getting chores done or doing your favorite craft.
Day 20: Volunteer with an organization you love
Use the day to give back to your community.
In addition to helping the people around you, research shows that volunteering is also good for your health and mental well-being. Plus, it increases your positive social interactions with others working towards the same goal, which is also pretty cool (and positively impacts your health by combatting isolation).
If you’re looking for a place to start, check out your local shelters, food kitchens, hospitals, gardens, community spaces and more.
Day 21: Log off social media
You’ve prioritized your friendships, redecorated your living space and helped your community — it’s time for another break. This time, from social media.
Post-holidays, it’s typical for social media feeds to be filled with photos of your friends’ picture-perfect vacations, engagement announcements, children with their new toys and so much more — not to mention nonstop headlines about the latest breaking news or unprecedented weather event.
Today’s social media break can help briefly reset your brain and allow you to focus on other things. And if you like how it feels, maybe you can extend the break until next month. (The FOMO will subside. Promise.)
Day 22: Write out your old habits and plan to build new ones
As you approach the end of January, take today to identify any habits that you don’t want to bring into the remainder of the year and outline new habits that you want to continue to build.
Habit formation (or breaking) isn’t easy. It involves repeating thoughts and actions until they become automatic. It can take anywhere from three to six months to break a habit, so be patient with yourself if it doesn’t seem as smooth as you’d like.
So, have you continued participating in Dry January? Do you think you’ll stay on the no-social-media train? Write these goals down, and don’t forget to praise yourself for working hard at these new behaviors. In addition, write why you are determined to make these changes and substitute old habits with new ones.
Day 23: Come up with a positive affirmation
Don’t know how to praise yourself for building or breaking new habits? That’s where positive affirmations come in. This form of positive self-talk can help disrupt negative thought patterns, boost self-compassion and help motivate you toward your desired behaviors.
The science behind it is cool: Repeatedly saying phrases that are meaningful to you and demoting your inner critic helps to rewire the neural pathways in your brain and strengthen positive thought patterns.
Use today to write out a few affirmations that can help you in areas where you’d like more self-support, and tape them onto your mirror or laptop or set a reminder on your phone so that you see them throughout the day.
Day 24: Meditate for five minutes
Today is all about staying present. Mindfulness is a practice that increases self-awareness and positively affects health by interrupting the fight-or-flight response and reducing stress levels. It has also been reported to help alleviate chronic pain symptoms and prevent depression relapse.
Take five minutes to meditate, if you like to do that — but contrary to popular belief, you don’t have to meditate to practice mindfulness. Find that coloring book from day 11 and channel your inner artist. Listen to music. Build a morning ritual. Whatever helps you center yourself in the present moment can be a mindfulness practice.
Day 25: Take a mental health day
You’ve done a lot this month — it’s time for a mental health day.
A mental health day can help you relax, recalibrate and lessen work-related stress. And even if you’re not having nightmares about your deadlines or mean customers, it’s still important to take a beat to reorient yourself, prioritize tasks in your personal life and find ways to de-stress.
If you can’t take a mental health day from your job, try finding 10- or 15-minute pockets throughout the day to decompress. Get a drink of water, socialize or use a meditation app for a quick dose of mindfulness.
Day 26: Try a cold plunge
Feeling brave? Embrace the cold today with a cold plunge. Cold immersion has been shown to help with mental stress and support immune function. If you’re not ready to take a wintertime dip in the Sound, try starting small with a cold bath or shower.
Day 27: Make a therapy appointment
One way to prepare for the year ahead is to seek outside support from a therapist.
A good therapist will help you set goals for yourself (or help you stick with the ones you’ve already set throughout this month) and challenge you to find the strength that already exists within you.
If you already have a therapist, great, just don't let yourself get out of your next session. If you don't have one, remember: There’s no shame in seeing a therapist. Plus, contrary to popular belief, you don’t need to be struggling or have a mental health issue to start seeing a therapist. You’re doing what you need to do to be the best version of yourself. Use today to research a therapist you might want to work with and reach out if you’re ready.
Day 28: Question an anxious thought
While you’re waiting to see a therapist (or if you don’t have access to one), use today to practice some therapeutic techniques at home.
Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) focuses on the interconnectedness of thoughts, emotions and behaviors. To practice this strategy, question your fearful thoughts, slowly try out new or different behaviors and use your senses to ground yourself in the present.
CBT can help with feelings of anxiety, depression and stress and set you up to confidently tackle the rest of the year.
Day 29: Celebrate a failure (yes, really)
It’s OK to fail, and today, take time to celebrate those failures.
Failure is a normal part of life and doesn’t define you. Everything will be OK if you’re not completely consistent with your new year goals or make mistakes while learning a new task.
List some of your recent mistakes or failures. Allow yourself to feel how you feel, but then take time to reconnect with yourself. Most importantly, don’t give up.
Day 30: Venture outside, even if it's raining
Today, embrace nature at its fullest. Research shows that spending time outside is good for your mental and physical well-being. (Yes, even in cold, gloomy weather.)
Being outdoors significantly benefits mental health by reducing stress, enhancing mood and improving cognitive function. You don’t have to go for an hours-long walk or a national park hike to experience nature at its fullest: Spend time being curious about the nature around you, rain or shine, blooming or not.
Day 31: Focus on the present moment without judgment
Congrats — you made it through the first month of 2025. Before you move forward into the remainder of the year, use the last day of January to practice radical acceptance, aka accepting things for what they are in the present moment.
There’s no doubt that this year will contain immense joy alongside unexpected challenges, as does every year. As you face the uncertainty of the future, practicing radical acceptance doesn’t mean that you’ll be resigning yourself to fate or justifying any traumatic experiences you may have. Instead, it means acknowledging reality without judgment.
And when you also inevitably experience incredible moments of joy, you’ll be ready to celebrate — and don’t forget to feel proud for showing up for yourself.
