00:00With the new year almost here, many of us are planning for a fresh start and new resolutions.
00:04I'm going to call you Ariella, which is your name instead of R or Ari. That's mine.
00:09I love it.
00:10Okay. Here with new tips on how to make those resolutions a success is Dr. Susan Albers.
00:17She's a doctor of psychology at Cleveland Clinic.
00:20Dr. Albers, thanks so much for being with us again. New Year's resolutions, they're often made,
00:25but can be kind of hard to keep. Why is that so difficult for people?
00:30Traditionally, people make the same resolution year after year. And it really shows the
00:37difference between what we want and what we do. And we can really use psychology to
00:41fill in that gap. There's three things that often stand in the way of New Year's resolutions.
00:48Number one is that they're not realistic. Number two, they are not attainable. They are things
00:54that are too far out of our reach. And third, we don't understand the concept of change. We often
01:00think that we make a decision and it's like a light switch. We turn on, we decide, and we get
01:04going. But instead, change is like a dimmer switch. We turn it on slowly and work on it consistently.
01:10And we can set up psychological tips that can help us to make it happen.
01:15Are you finding people are making different types of resolutions? And what are some of the goals?
01:22Traditionally, the most common New Year's resolutions have been around weight loss and
01:27increasing exercise, health-related goals. However, since the pandemic, there has been
01:32a significant shift. Mental health has become a priority. On New Year's resolutions list,
01:38you will see people making changes around their mental health. For example, increasing their sleep,
01:45decreasing their social media use, putting dieting aside and instead focusing on mindful eating. All
01:54of these things that help to decrease the stress in their life. Unfortunately, the pandemic,
01:59we saw an increase in anxiety, depression, loneliness. The good news is that it really
02:05put a spotlight on making mental health just as important as changing our physical health.
02:11I love that and good to see the changes here over the years. We talked about the difficulties in
02:16keeping those resolutions. So for people who want to stick to it this year, can you give us some
02:19strategies to succeed? How can you make resolutions part of your life in the weeks ahead?
02:27Choose a start goal instead of a stop goal. For example, instead of telling yourself to stop eating
02:33sugar, encourage yourself to begin eating fruits and vegetables. These new goals that we start can
02:41move aside old goals and it takes out the tug of war in our heads. Number two is to use what is
02:48known as habit stacking. This is taking an already existing goal or habit that we have every day
02:55and adding a new habit to it. For example, if I drink coffee every morning, the very next behavior
03:00I do is to go for a walk. Pairing these behaviors together makes it much easier to keep it going.
03:08There are so many different ways that we can also improve our mental health, whether it is journaling,
03:13downloading a mental health app, for example, Calm Headspace. Cleveland Clinic has many free ones as
03:19well, but prioritizing our mental health and taking a few moments to write down our goals can make a
03:25significant difference. Dr. Susan Albers, doctor of psychology at the Cleveland Clinic, thank you
03:32again for joining us and Happy New Year. Thank you. Happy New Year.
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