Advice on How to Start the New Year With Greater Mental Resilience
WASHINGTON — Scan the internet or magazine racks or even your local newspaper this time of year and you’ll find ample advice on how to start the new year off happier and healthier.
For most of us, these articles make for a fast skim. The advice from source to source is so similar — and of the straight-forward, no-brainer variety — that it’s easy to dismiss or simply forget.
“Oh, everyone knows that,” one says as they flip to the latest news on Taylor Swift and Kansas City Chief, Travis Kelce.
The truth, however, is that staying true to what we already know takes work.
As a result, writes Dr. Mark Bertin in the latest edition of Greater Good Magazine, “Good things and bad things endlessly cycle.
“Resilience,” he says, “relies on staying aware of our choices to influence what we can and then navigating all the rest as well as we’re able.”
The magazine is published by the Greater Good Science Center and the University of California, Berkeley, an institution that sprang from the generosity and inspiration of Berkeley alumni Thomas and Ruth Ann Hornaday.
Their philanthropy and interests just happened to mesh neatly with the research of UC Berkeley psychologists Dacher Keltner, Philip and Carolyn Cowan and Stephen Hinshaw.
Together, they created an organization that not only sponsors academic research but also places an equal emphasis on disseminating that research to parents, teachers and other practitioners, helping them apply scientific findings to their personal and professional lives.
Bertin, a developmental pediatrician and author, is a member of the faculty at New York Medical College and the Windward Teacher Training Institute in New York City.
His latest piece for Greater Good is entitled “Seven Reminders for How to Live Well in 2024.”
In it he observes that what he calls “a failing lifestyle” contributes to the state of “overwhelm” for this generation.
“Reactionary, sedentary, and social-media-driven ways do not work for anyone,” Bertin says. “The cutting-edge science of staying strong and happy still points back toward the wisdom of old-school, commonsense choices.”
His advice for achieving better mental and physical wellness in 2024 comes down to getting back to basics:
- Connect with people who support you. Put down whatever device is currently in your hand and focus on real people instead.
- Engage in real time with whatever sustains you. Stop obsessing over the news, and give full attention to personal interests and positive moments.
- Exercise. Medically speaking, the doctor warns, there is no healthy sedentary lifestyle. “Everyone has to move,” Betin writes. “The idea that exercise is optional is a modern myth.”
- Take care of your brain. Setting aside time for beneficial activities — like sleeping enough, reading, offline hobbies, or practicing mindfulness — solidifies stronger tendencies.
- Let go of consumerism. Buying the latest shiny object for the sake of buying it is a quick fix, but can’t bring you lasting happiness or wellness.
- Practice both kindness and gratitude. “Setting an intention to meet each moment with kindness and gratitude supports the people around us and has been shown to increase our happiness, too,” Betin writes.
- Understand the science of habit formation. Habits take effort to form. Start with small, realistic steps. Then set reminders, and partner with someone if you can. “Stay patient when you lose track of yourself and come back to your best intentions again. That’s how new habits hardwire,” the doctor advises.
“To summarize: Spend time with real people, treat them well, put down your devices and move your body. When you see a chance, do things that improve the world. And then, amid the onslaught of self-help guides, gurus and glittery things to play with and buy, commit to the wisdom of the basics in 2024 instead,” Bertin writes.
Dan can be reached at [email protected] and at https://twitter.com/DanMcCue
