5 Things You Can Do to Have A Happier, Healthier 2019

Do you make resolutions every year? Lots of people do it, either privately or through public proclamation. Popular resolutions usually involve pledging to lose weight, drink more water (me, every year), go after that coveted promotion, travel more, learn to meditate or quit smoking.

Each of those is a fabulous goal to work towards but the harsh reality is, few of us actually achieve our resolutions. According to research from the University of Scranton just 8%  of people ever hit their goals.

Big lofty goals to change our lives rarely find traction simply because we get derailed by small failures or the idea becomes overwhelming. Thats why we think small, incremental changes are the best way to work toward big healthy goals. With that in mind, we’ve compiled a list of seemingly small actions that can create big change.

Drink More Water

Drinking water improves symptoms of fatigue, supports weight loss, aids in digestion, improves skin appearance, flushes out toxins and can combat bad breath, plus its great for quenching weed related thirst, AKA cottonmouth. But you already know that, don’t you? We could likely all stand to drink more water but downing enough water every day can seem an impossible task. We say: start small. Aim to increase your water intake by half a cup every day until you are drinking the recommended 8 cups per day.

Meditate

There are hundreds of reasons you should consider meditation, not the least of which is reduced anxiety, stress and depression. There are hundreds of studies on the positive effects of meditation but some of the more interesting studies we’ve come across point to meditation as an aid in pain management, a tool to help manage the symptoms of ADHD, to increase focus, and to reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.

In fact we are such big fans of meditation that we produced a series of guided meditations and breathing exercises called the Mental Health Booster. You can see it on the site, on Google Play and Apple Podcasts.

Change Your Vocabulary

When it comes to diet, health and body image we tend to default to what some experts are calling potentially harmful diet culture language. For example, after a second helping of New Year’s Day brunch we might tell our friends that we’ve been “bad” or that we “feel fat”. Language like this can trigger negative emotions and reduce us to mere body parts that need to be fixed.

Stop using guilt and shame to talk about food and your body. There is no reason someone as beautiful and spectacular as you, dear reader should ever be made to feel unhappy in her own skin. Instead ditch the extreme diets “cheat days” and start allowing yourself to live happily and be mindful about your nutritional intake, stop asking your friends if you look “fat” and instead ask them how hot you look.

Make Time for Self Care

Stop putting this off, there is no better time than now to practice a little self love. Even if you have a jam packed busy day you can still take a moment to breath deeply, tell yourself what a kick ass job you’re doing or to queue up that podcast or netflix show you want to check out. Schedule that massage, run the bath or lace up your hiking boots and go out outside.

There is no right way to practice self care, do something for yourself that makes you happy and feel loved and cared for. It could be a tarot card session, lunch with your BFF, allocating an hour to read your favorite novel every night or waking up twenty minutes earlier than usual to ensure you get a good, healthy breakfast.

Read a Great Book

There are so many amazing books out there, and so many fabulous cannabis books too. Expand your knowledge around cannabis and be entertained at the same time. We have a couple of recommendations you might want to check out:

Breaking the Grass Ceiling is a biographical collection featuring powerful, driven and courageous women who have been instrumental in paving the way into the cannabis industry for many.

The Little Book of Cannabis examines 10 popular myths about cannabis to determine if they are true. We shared an excerpt here, check it out.

Last year we shared a list of cannabis books written by women that are must-reads. You can find that list and links to buy each book here.