The New Year is an inspiring time that encourages us to make positive changes in our lives. You may have started your year by trying to get back in the gym, improving your eating habits, and developing a new wellness routine. While we applaud all efforts for living a healthier life, we encourage you to embrace a resolution revolution and look for new ways to change your routine this year.
4 Ways To Shake Up Your New Year's Resolutions
Find A New & Interesting Sport To Take On
If you haven't heard of pickleball, let us introduce you to the fastest-growing sport in the U.S. Pickleball is a sport created for all ages and skill levels, that is easy to learn, fun to play, and can quickly develop into a fast-paced game for competitive players. It combines many aspects of tennis, badminton, and ping-pong, and can be played both indoors and out. With a natural alignment around wellness and promoting a healthy, active lifestyle, Gaia Herbs is proud to be the Official Supplement Partner of the USA Pickleball Association. Discover a pickleball court near you.
Another fun sport to consider is ultimate frisbee. If you have not heard of or played this sport before, it combines aspects of flag football and is played with a flying disc (or Frisbee™). Two teams of seven players compete on a playing field and at each end of the field there is an end zone. Goals are scored if one of a team's players catches the disc in the opposite end zone. The first team to 15 points, which is also at least two points ahead of the other team, wins.
These are just a couple of ideas of fun sports to explore. If these do not strike your interest, you can easily search online to uncover another new sport to try out.
It’s the Year to Go Green
With the increasing popularity in zero-waste initiatives and additional focus on efforts to protect the earth, make 2020 your year to implement your own green goals. This can begin with simple swaps, such as using stainless steel straws, plant-based cleaning products, and reusable water bottles and bags. When you are shopping, choose products that have more sustainable packaging, such as cartons made from FSC-certified forests or glass jars that can be recycled.
Evaluate the products that you use on a daily basis. Are you using facial or body products that contain harmful chemicals? Not sure? Check your product labels for ingredients such as aluminum, parabens, phthalates, oxybenzone, or PEG compounds. If you see these names in your ingredient list, you can easily find alternative products that do not contain harmful ingredients and that are cruelty-free, all-natural, and/or vegan. These alternative products are not only better for your body and your health, but also for the environment.
Revitalize Your Skin
Consider upgrading your skincare routine as part of your new year's improvements. Your skin is your body’s largest organ, and it needs care and attention to thrive. A simple change that you can make that will provide immediate skin benefits is to drink more water. We all know that water is important for our overall health, but did you know that it also helps to improve dry skin and overall skin elasticity? If you find it challenging to drink plain tap water, try drinking herbal teas. There are many varieties of herbal teas to choose from and this is an easy and delicious way to flavor your water while also getting the additional benefits of herbs.
Gua sha has also been making headlines in the wellness world. Gua sha is a natural, alternative therapy used in traditional East Asian medicine that involves applying pressure and scraping your skin with a massage tool to improve your circulation. Gua sha tools are typically made of crystals such as rose quartz, jade, and opal, and are designed to help increase blood flow in the face, reducing puffiness, and tension.
Supplements are another great way to take care of your skin and help it glow from the inside out.* Hair, Skin & Nail Support promotes the healthy growth of hair, skin, and nail tissue with a harmonious blend of Horsetail, Burdock, Triphala, Amla, Belleric Myrobalan, Chebulic Myrobalan, Nettle, and Gotu Kola.*
Another Gaia staff favorite to support skin health and aging gracefully is Resveratrol 150.* Made with ethically harvested Japanese Knotweed to provide 150 mg trans-Resveratrol per dose, this is the equivalent to the Resveratrol contained in 60 bottles of red wine. This formula is a great source of antioxidant support for a clear and healthy glow.*
Conscious Consumerism for the Win
The new year is a great time to rethink where your dollars are going. This is known as conscious consumerism, and this movement is thankfully becoming more popular. One easy way to be a more conscious consumer is to buy from Certified B Corporations® (also known as B Corps). B Corp certification is a stamp of approval for companies that have proven their commitment to doing good. B Corps are businesses that are not only Living Wage Certified, but also consider the planet as an equal shareholder when making decisions. These businesses give back to the community and the environment, and produce products that you can be proud of. Before making your next purchase, see if the company you are purchasing from is a B Corp.
Taking a closer look at the food you purchase is also a great way to be a more conscious consumer. When grocery shopping, check to see if the companies that you are buying from are Certified Organic or support regenerative agriculture. Regenerative agriculture refers to a farming method that helps improve soil health, traps carbon within the soil, and creates positive environmental change.
You may not be aware that the Gaia Farm has been Certified Organic through Oregon Tilth since 1998. We also use regenerative agricultural practices including natural erosion control methods, protecting pollinators, cover cropping, and ongoing work to continually improve our soil organic matter.
New Year, New Well-Being
Use this new year as inspiration to live your best life and challenge yourself to choose something deeper and more meaningful for your goals versus the standard calorie cutting and fitness objectives. While these are always good goals to have, we feel that the start of a new decade deserves a new way of thinking about your resolutions.
“Cheers to a new year and another chance for us to get it right.” - Oprah Winfrey