New Year's resolutions are a popular way for people to reflect on the past year and set goals for the year ahead. While resolutions can be personal and varied, focusing on improving your health is a common theme. Here are some New Year's resolutions that can have a positive impact on your health and well-being:

The new year is just around the corner, which means many of us are already starting to think about our new year’s resolutions. Sure, we tend to enjoy the holiday season first. But starting to plan the positive changes you want to implement into your life for 2023 is a project best started sooner rather than later. Knowing what changes you want to make as soon as possible will allow you to take steps that will allow you to get started as soon as we step into the new year. If you need to order anything, get anything ready or arrange appointments that will help implement the change, you can make sure that everything is ready and organised in good time. Now, one change that many of us make is implementing a healthier lifestyle. Here are a few ideas that can help you to achieve this goal for you and your family!

Quitting Bad Habits

A good place to start is quitting habits that are actively bad for your health and wellbeing. Often, this applies more to the parents of the family than the children. If you’re a smoker, you should look into ways to cut down and quit. If you use other substances, you may want to consider addiction treatment. If you drink too regularly or excessively, trying out dry January and looking into support can be useful. There’s always a way out of bad habits and to improve your general lifestyle and wellbeing.

Diet

Start eating healthier family meals. Wave goodbye to regular takeaways and junk food and start meal planning and meal prepping to provide your family with consistent, healthy, balanced meals that are genuinely enjoyable.

Exercise

Exercise plays another major role in general health and wellbeing. It’s recommended that the average adult gets 150 minutes of moderate aerobic exercise a week and you should check in on the recommendations applicable to children of the ages your kids are. The key to consistent exercise is to make sure everyone finds a form they enjoy. Get your kids to try out different teams, classes, activities and more until they find something they actually look forward to. If you find that you struggle to keep to your fitness schedule, you may want to consider hiring a personal trainer who can guide you.

Mental and Emotional Health

It’s important to remember that your mental and emotional health and wellbeing are extremely important too. With all this focus on body, it can be easy to forget. There are plenty of steps you can take to maximise your family’s mental and emotional wellbeing. If you sare experiencing problems, you may want to consider family therapy sessions that allow people to talk out their problems and struggles in a neutral environment where a professional can offer suggestions and guidance. At home, you can encourage openness, honesty and the ability to take criticism and transform it into change for the better, rather than people getting defensive.

Each of these steps can really help you to get your family on track for a healthier lifestyle in 2023!

 What Are The Benefits Of Positive Reinforcement?

It's no secret that parenting is one of the toughest jobs in the world, and if there's one unpleasant responsibility that comes with being a parent, it's controlling your child's behavior. As parents, it is our responsibility to instill in our children the social and emotional skills they'll need to thrive in the world by teaching them how to control their own behavior. How do you then control your child's behavior? Do you often yell at your child to attract attention to their misbehavior? Do you frequently lose your temper and experience overwhelming stress? If so, you might find that positive reinforcement is a better tactic. Read on to find out more. 

It Helps Children Develop

One of the most important things to remember about positive reinforcement is to compliment and praise the child's actions, not the child himself.

Praising a child's actions instead of their personality helps them grow and gives them a sense that they can do things well. This is because they have the power to learn new skills, but it can be hard to change personality traits.

It Has Long Term Benefits 

Children need discipline, but that doesn't give adults license to treat them harshly while administering it. When asking your child to do anything, your chances of getting a good response will increase if you use positive reinforcement.

Positive reinforcement can be more helpful in the long run because it changes a child's behavior in a good way. On the other hand, trying to change a child's behavior by making them anxious or afraid could make them feel bad about themselves as they get older.

It Increases Confidence 

When children get positive feedback for doing a good job, their sense of self-worth goes up. They are proud of who they are and what they can do because someone else, like their parent or another trusted individual like their therapist for speech therapy for children, tells them so. Children who feel good about themselves might be interested in getting more skills, taking more classes, and learning more things. 

It Makes Them Feel Loved

Not all children know what it means to be disciplined, and they don't always understand why their parents want them to act in certain ways. Because of this, when children get in trouble or are punished, they think it means their parents don't love them and just want to hurt them for acting up. As parents, that's the last thing we want our kids to feel.

When you respond to your child's behavior in a positive way, they will feel loved and cared for.

How To Practice Positive Reinforcement 

It's important to choose a method of positive reinforcement that works with your child's personality and the way they respond to love and respect. Smiles, hugs, praises, spending time doing something meaningful to them, showing off their work with pride, having a say in what they do for the day or what they eat for dinner are all examples of common types of positive reinforcement.

Because children of all ages have a natural desire to please their parents, teachers, and primary caregivers, and a need to be noticed and acknowledged for making good choices, positive reinforcement is quite effective with children. Praise for appropriate behavior like this motivates kids to keep it up.