Create New Routines: Become physically, mentally and spiritually healthier in the new year with these strategies

We begin a new year with hope, renewal and determination; it’s a good time to start working on developing new routines.

Routines, according to the Brain MD article “5 Powerful Benefits of Having a Healthy Daily Routine” by Kim Henderson, can increase efficiency, reduce stress, promote health, boost creativity and provide meaning in our lives.

“We are creatures of habit,” says Saint Francis Healthcare System internal medicine physician Dr. Rob Dodson, MD. “We feel safe and normal when we have patterns, when we have a routine.”

Dodson recommends establishing positive health routines, as well as positive personal routines. For health, he says it is important to implement routines pertaining to diet, exercise, sleep and general health maintenance such as going to the doctor, dentist and eye doctor regularly.

When establishing personal routines, he says it’s important to focus on learning new skills such as speaking a foreign language or reading more, spending time with family members such as by calling one’s brother once a week, and growing spiritually such as by having set-aside time to “mak[e] better contact” at one’s church or in one’s prayer. These practices can help people feel centered, he says.

Ready to feel more grounded? Here are five ways to implement new routines into your life in 2024. Cheers to the new year!

1. Go with intention.

Starting a new routine is all about realizing your behavior patterns, so you can choose to keep or change them. Sue Nesler, M.S., M.A., E-RYT 500, C-IAYT, NCC, PLPC, and owner of Yoga East Healing Arts Studio in Cape Girardeau, says incorporating sensory experiences into your day can cue your body for certain behaviors. For example, using lavender essential oils and quietly playing the sound of crashing waves over a speaker just before bedtime can help your body know it is time to sleep, she says.

“Routines and habits are different. Routines are very intentional. Typically, habits are unintentional,” Nesler says. “Routine can bookend a lot of unknown or chaos that’s happening in your life. … Our bodies become habituated, [and] it doesn’t take very much when you introduce a routine, when you start repeating it, that your body really starts to understand.”

Part of being intentional about making a change is knowing why you want to do something, and allowing that reason to motivate your change in behavior. For example, someone who wants to be more active with their children or grandchildren might create a routine centered around cardio and weight training exercises, so they can maintain their body’s ability to move well.

“If we don’t have a good, established reason why we want to make the changes, the changes are not going to stick, because there’s not a reason for the change,” Dodson says.

2. Set achievable goals.

When creating a new routine, it’s important not to expect too much too soon, says Director of Clinical Services at Southeast Behavioral Hospital John Cooley, PhD. For example, if your goal is to start exercising, he recommends going to the gym for 15 minutes a couple of times a week. After a few weeks of successfully implementing this new routine, begin to build upon it by increasing the amount of time you workout at the gym or increasing the number of times a week you go.

“You get to your goal by the small steps,” Cooley says.

The key, Dodson says, is to create constant movement forward in your life, so you’re always moving in the right direction. For example, if you drink four sodas a day, rather than quitting soda consumption all at once, he recommends cutting down to two sodas a day until that is your new normal, and then cutting down again from there.

“One of the best ways for us to continue our goals is to have some success with those goals, so you need to give yourself an achievable goal to attain, and then once you achieve those goals, you say, ‘Hey, I can do that, now maybe I can do more [to achieve my end goal].’”

3. Connect with others.

When implementing new routines, it’s important to involve others in your routines, so they can support you in your goals. For example, partners can work to create a routine around eating healthier at home by meal planning, grocery shopping, cooking and eating together.

It’s also important to create healthy social routines, so you maintain contact with people you love. Especially during the wintertime when it’s cold outside and gets dark early, it can be easy for people to “talk themselves out of going to places,” Cooley says. To take care of your mental health, it’s important to stick to your commitments.

“Stay in contact with people that support [you] and people [you] love,” Cooley says. “Find time for friends and activities, maybe even if [you] have a church or a club or a social thing that [you] do, keep active in those things. … [Stay] close to the support system and the support network.”

4. Don’t compare yourself.

Healthiness is a spectrum, Dodson says, and people on the unhealthier end often get complacent because they feel like there is no hope they could ever improve; people on the healthier end of the spectrum often get complacent because they think they are doing better than others, and they don’t need to improve. It’s important not to fall into either category, Dodson says.

“Don’t compare yourself to other people,” Dodson says. “Compare yourself to yourself and the person that you want to be, and try to make moves in the right direction.”

5. Break out of routine every once in a while.

Although it’s important to create and stick to healthy routines, changing your routine up a bit in positive ways from time to time is also healthy for the brain and the whole person, Cooley says. For example, Cooley says if you don’t like to go to the movies by yourself, try going to a movie solo to see if you like it. Or, if you want to try a different restaurant or a new activity, go for it.

“Anything you can do to try something new and different that you didn’t know if you’d like or not, just give it a try,” Cooley says. “It builds your self-confidence and self-esteem, makes you feel like you can accomplish something that you didn’t know you could accomplish.”