What you do repeatedly will make you who you are. Successful people are simply those with successful habits.
From the time we were children, parents always emphasised the value of good habits.
Because with good habits, comes a good lifestyle.
Habits can be changed if only you are willing to put in the effort. Once you accept this possibility, you gain the power and freedom to transform your life.
It is never too late to change and figure out what YOU really want. Psychologists say, 20 days are enough to cultivate and work through creating habits.
The Rewind Challenge has been about taking a break, going back in time doing feel-good activities to help one bloom into their best self.
The Challenge has taught us the importance of self-love and self-care. Through its "share your own experience" feature, it enabled so many of us, here at Now&Me, to reflect on how our day changed by adopting some wholesome habits.
The Challenge came as a reminder to take a pause, breathe in and let go. It helped us within a 20-day period to divert our mind from all the commotion and stress surrounding our daily life and the emotional buildup during this pandemic.
Personally, as a part-taker in this challenge, I feel this was a much-needed push to get everyone through the last leg of the stressful year that was 2020; reminding us how we can change our habits and become the best versions of ourselves.
As we enter the new year, hope fills us. Hope that 2021 should be a better year than 2020 and more than anything it fills us with hope for a better future and a better world.
To always keep in mind that some little tweaks can make the saddest of days feel better, I've compiled some healthy and useful habits that THE REWIND CHALLENGE taught me!
These are not the most complex of habits but simple tricks and tips that can make your days even better.
1. Proper Sleep
Especially in the past year, a healthy sleep cycle has not been an easy thing to achieve. Proper sleep puts your body into its natural circadian rhythm and helps your physiological system function in an optimum manner. It also leaves you feeling energised. With proper sleep, one can organize the day more efficiently.
2. Working Out
2020 has led to a sedentary lifestyle for most of us and made workouts an indoor activity (for those still working out i.e.).This is a major reason why many of us feel lazy to even think of working out. However, there is no doing away with the fact that physical movement is important for a healthy body. It is good to sit up and stretch for a while or simply go out for a walk, it WILL help you feel energized.
It gives you motivation and energy to achieve your goals. And it keeps your mind active and helps with focus. Take out at least 25-40 minutes of your day to workout. And if you feel you are too tired to find time in your day, why not take a 30-minute walk or a quick 20-minute jog outside but beware of covid!
3. Eating Healthy
Definitely a challenge! But a good body needs a good diet. With an extremely unhealthy diet, it is difficult to break the pattern. But small daily changes like eating fruits can help one progress. Eating healthy is not always about getting a dietician but sometimes it is all about starting your day with a resolve to eat healthily and stay fit. Health is wealth.
4. Time Management
They say that to achieve great things you need to manage your time properly so that you can make time for all that you want. Either the day runs you or you run the day. To manage time effectively one needs to note down priorities and plan accordingly! Make a balanced timetable that has both elements of work, as well as play.
5. Power of Thought
Negative thinking is a complex habit that is difficult to let go of. It keeps one low on motivation and occupied by sad emotions. It is very important to let go of negative thinking. You can start by thinking that good things will happen and start to look at situations from a fresher, more positive perspective. As hard as it might be, stop overthinking and overanalyzing things. If you feel your thoughts are getting the better of you, you can speak to a professional mental health expert.
6. Gratitude
Be thankful for all that you have daily. Cultivating gratitude doesn’t cost any money and it certainly doesn’t take much time, but the benefits are enormous. You can start by thinking about the good things that happened to you or even the shining sun, or the leaves swaying to the wind.
7. Forgiving Yourself
Sometimes when not-so-favourable things happen in life, we get angry with ourselves and hold ourselves responsible for more things than necessary. Rather, we have to learn to forgive ourselves to truly move forward and be the person that we want to be.
Imperfections are a part of life and you can truly only move ahead when you forgive yourself. Start forgiving yourself for things like being late or when you feel like saying no. Ways in which you can start to forgive yourself is by writing a letter to yourself, or simply just reflecting or telling yourself that it is okay and I can do better next time.
Now, the real question is: How do I actually follow these habits and bring about a change?
Write down the healthy habits you want to cultivate and create an action plan for it. Do not make it too strict for yourself right way! Rather, set some rewards for yourself, for example, a movie night or extra online shopping!
However tiring it might get, in the end, you will be able to overcome unhealthy habits if you are committed and willing to grow through the discomfort that the transition brings!
Here are some more ways that can help you cultivate healthy habits:
1. Start Small
Incremental change is better than ambitious failure ~Tony Schwartz A goal needs to be realistic and not idealistic. When you start it will get difficult to change a habit, so start with a small change, slow slow small changes can lead you to better results in the future.
2. Track Your Progress
Sometimes in the midst of wanting to perfect a habit and create a fulfilling lifestyle, one tends to get very involved with the goal and end result. So much so, that the focus on the shortcomings increases instead of realising how far one has come in the first place. Therefore, keep tracking how far you have come. To track your progress, you can maintain a dairy, or make a checklist.
3. Reward Yourself
Whenever you move a few steps closer to your goal, reward yourself. That reward can be a long bath or a day off. You deserve it.
4. Working On It With Others!
If you have friends or family members that wish to adopt similar habits as you, follow them together. It will help each of you stay motivated! Don’t have someone to follow healthy habits with? Then, talk to the users on Now&Me about it! Do not know which kind of habits to change? Ask the Now&Me community!
5. Find a Role Model!
If you have a celebrity or someone in real life whom you admire, adopt their good habits! Watch motivational talks on youtube if you feel like it!
Feel free to share your habit plans with the Now&Me community and if you feel stuck, we are all here to support you!
We often set far-fetched resolutions which we are not able to stick to. This New Year set resolutions which are real and can be achieved every day. To set your resolutions on Now&Me for YOURSELF for 2021 for FREE, go to your Now&Me Profile today! 🧡 Valid only till February 2021
The Rewind Challenge on Now&Me served as a wakeup call and a sense of enlightenment for many. The member response has been phenomenal and it is heartwarming to see the impact it has made.
The response has been overwhelming and has filled everyone’s hearts with joy. A big thank you to each and every one of you who took part in this challenge and made it a success!
Let's hear it from the Now&Me Community Members themselves, how the challenge encouraged them:
Since this is the last task I just wanna thank Now and Me team for making this last 20 days of this year lovely and special. I will remember this for years! Though I missed a few of the tasks/experiences from the 20 days, I made sure I do it for myself. I have never been this understanding of myself and the world around me. In a way I was selfish and a few things this year changed that. I understand people better and where they were coming from.
When this year was about to end in less than a month, and I was regretful of not having done anything good for myself, this 20-day challenge came in. And I’ll like to thank @rivadhingra and the whole team of @nowandme as this challenge helped me develop healthy habits that I’ll try to continue forever. This challenge came as a realisation that we can be happier when we put in our own efforts. I valued myself, I let go off things, I forgave people. And today, I stand as a person with a heart, mind and a soul that’s free of toxicity, and full of happiness.
We hope that with The Rewind Challenge, you were able to experience the bliss and joy that healthy habits bring! Wishing you all a very happy new year. All the best on your journey towards cultivating healthy habits!
