Natylie Smith, a freshman sociology major from Mona believes it is very important to write down any goal you have. This helps to have it as a reminder to hold yourself accountable. So the goal does not slowly vanish. Photo by Trey Urban.
The next new trend resolution is here to stay. Mental fitness is the best new resolution to make for your 2022 New Year, new you vibe that you will achieve. Think of this type of resolution as focusing on being the main character in your life. The main character needs to be mentally fit to maintain being the center of the story.
New year, new you. That’s how it usually goes during the month of January. We all set up New Year’s resolutions. The most common resolutions are eating healthier, losing weight, joining a gym, or joining a fitness class that your friends have been raving about. Maybe your goal is more nuanced, like going to bed at a decent hour, reading a few pages from that book on your bookshelf that you’ve been trying to find the time to start reading finally, or maybe it’s finding time to honor yourself and muting all the noise around you.
With the stress of the pandemic and the uncertainty we face every day, a new type of resolution has started to become on-trend. Working on your mental health. Of course, mental health has always been important. Still, now more than ever, it has become a subject brought up in casual conversation. We are moving away from the stigma of talking about mental health to openly talking about it on our social media pages. Like the main characters that we all aspire to be, we have found new ways to talk about our mental health; from posting on Tik Tok to posting an awareness post on Instagram, our generation is obsessed with mental health, as we should be.
Which has inspired these top three resolutions that will help all of us become more mentally fit and help us aspire to become the main character that we all deserve to be.
Talk about your mental health
Mental health is vital to talk about. How else can we achieve full-on main character status if we bottle up how we really feel about our mental health and carry on in silence ? That is not what the main character does. No, the main character talks about their mental health, whether with someone you trust, like a friend, a family member, or even your therapist. Get whatever it is that is bothering you and share your truth, and if you don’t have someone to talk to, write it out. Sometimes that is all we need to do to feel better. That is how we stay mentally fit.
A junior criminal justice major from Ogden, Keira Herre, said, “Have somebody willing to listen. Just listen. They don’t have to say anything back. You need somebody to talk to about your feelings no matter how harsh your feelings and thoughts are.” Enlist someone you trust to be that listening ear and lean on them when you need to talk so you can flourish in the new year.
Kelly Kendall, a part-time instructor for The College of Humanities and Social Sciences here on campus, tells all of his students to “drop the mask you are wearing and be authentic and real with those you are communicating with.” Advice like this will help you become the main character in your story. We all know the main characters are authentic with themselves and others. They tell you how it is and don’t hide behind a carefully orchestrated mask. They live authentically and communicate the same way. This is what we want for 2022. Being fake is so 2020.
Be kind to yourself and those around you
Being kind to yourself and showing gratitude toward yourself will help keep your mental health on the right path. It will help with how you feel toward the people you come in contact with. It will also help you develop your new origin story filled with rewarding experiences because you were kind enough to yourself that you became kind to those around you. Sunshine spreads sunshine.
Jamy Dahle, assistant director of the Booth Wellness Center, said, “It is important to practice maintaining good mental health, same as you would with physical health. Implement strategies such as giving back and engaging in service activities, get connected to people and activities, set healthy boundaries.”
Being kind to yourself can look like setting boundaries, connecting with yourself and others, doing service projects, or finding an activity that fosters positive feelings and helps find a path to being kind to yourself and others.
DSU junior and English major Angelina Groneman from Las Vegas said, “Figure out what is upsetting you. If it is too damaging and unnecessary like fake friends or nagging family members, take action like distancing yourself or setting boundaries.” Like the main character status you are trying to reach, don’t be afraid to cut off toxic people or people who kill your vibe. We are in 2022, where setting healthy boundaries is as trendy as ’90s nostalgia.
Being kind to yourself can be different. Heather Gifford, a post-doctoral teaching fellow of applied sociology, said, “Constant self check-ins, scheduling time for you and your needs, and putting your personal health first so that you can be the best at the other things you do in life.”
This is one way to be kind to yourself. That way, you know where you are mentally, and you can make changes and re-evaluate what you want out of your resolutions.
This leads me to the third resolution that you need to add to your journey of obtaining mental fitness and main character status.
Set goals
Natylie Smith, a freshman from Mona majoring in sociology, has set some goals this semester and said: “Setting goals is a must. Otherwise, you don’t have any motivation to do anything, leading to episodes of depression. This is why I set goals that will push me for the next eight weeks, six months, and the next year. This way, I have things to look forward to achieving.”
Another good tip that Smith said was to write down your goals for the next week so they don’t get forgotten. This is something we can all work on. We write down our homework and assignments. So why not write down our goals. You can even do a vision board full of goals to track your progress to becoming the main character and reach those goals.
DSU sophomore and American Sign Language major Nyah Richards of Salt Lake City said: “I’m not a big New Year’s goal person, but I’ve been wanting to maintain a goal for myself: giving myself a break. I often beat myself up for feeling depressed, anxious, and stressed. Even at times, I know that those feelings are not my fault. I’m tired of doing this to myself when all I am trying to do is live my best life.”
Setting goals is one way to check in with yourself and have a visible representation of what you have accomplished. That way, when you get burned out or need a reminder of why you are setting resolutions, you can look at the progress you have made towards the goal you have set for yourself.
Remember these three “resolutions” are here to help you become the best you and develop that rocking main character that we all know you can be, especially since you have these “resolutions” to help you become mentally fit and navigate this wild and unpredictable year.
