It’s that time of year again, isn’t it? The time when people make New Years’ resolutions. How about adding some mental health related resolutions to your list? Whether you’re into setting New Years’ resolutions or not, setting these goals should help you feel better mentally, and more prepared to handle whatever life throws at you.

1. Set Boundaries

Boundaries are necessary for yourself and others. According to Anne Katherine, author of Boundaries: Where you end and I begin, “Boundaries bring order to our lives… Boundaries empower us to determine how we’ll be treated by others.” Healthy boundaries help you to be assertive and confidently state what you need and how you want to be treated. With healthy boundaries, you’ll be in fewer situations that leave you feeling angry and resentful as a result of a boundary violation. There are lots of books about developing healthy boundaries, like the one by Anne Katherine mentioned above: Boundary Power: How I Treat You, How I Let You Treat Me, How I Treat Myself by Mike S. O’Neil, Charles E. Newbold, Jr.; Better Boundaries; Owning and treasuring your life by Jan Black and Greg Enns; and The Life-changing Magic of Not Giving A F*ck — How to Stop Spending Time You Don’t Have With People You Don’t Like Doing Things You Don’t Want to Do by Sarah Knight.

2. Keep Moving

We’ve heard for years of people extolling the physical benefits of exercise — but rarely do we hear about the healing benefits of exercise for our mental health. Dr John Ratey talks a lot about the effects of exercise on the brain and the connection between exercise and being mentally healthy in his book Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain. Even as little as an hour of exercise a week can reduce future risk of depression, according to a recent study in the American Journal of Psychiatry. Exercise helps to balance chemicals in the brain, produce healing neurotropic factors, and overall improve mood, sleep and a whole host of other factors. Speaking of sleep…

3. Get a Healthy Amount of Sleep

According to The American Academy of Sleep Medicine, people who suffer from insomnia are more likely to experience depression and anxiety. “If you are sleep deprived, you can’t manage your mood,” Dr. Levy says. “Even the most basic demands on your life are going to feel harder.” This is especially true for while you are in school. The National Sleep Foundation recommends adults get between seven and nine hours of sleep each night. How to do this? Try winding down and turning off electronics half an hour before bedtime. Having a bedtime routine triggers your brain that it’s time to sleep.

4. Practice Forgiveness

Did you know that a lack of forgiveness can decrease your lifespan? According to Huffington Post, “People who practice conditional forgiveness — in other words, people who can only forgive if others say sorry first or promise not to do the transgression again — may be more likely to die earlier, compared with people who are less likely to practice conditional forgiveness.” This was discovered in a study by The Journal of Behavioral Medicine. In addition, when you’re chronically angry it impacts your blood pressure, heart rate, and sleep, according to Johns Hopkins Medicine. Forgiveness simply means acceptance. You know you’ve forgiven someone if you are no longer walking around angry, losing sleep and wishing something bad will happen to that person.

Maybe you aren’t holding a grudge against someone, but you need to forgive yourself. This will take time, but it will be worth it. Therapy is also a perfect opportunity to work on forgiveness.

5. Say Yes to Getting Better

Take the next step — or your first step — on the road to getting better, be it going to therapy, seeing a doctor, trying medication, or even implementing one of these goals. If it doesn’t work out like you hoped, don’t get discouraged, just try something new. See a different therapist, try a new medication, or try something different for exercise (yoga, martial arts, jogging, rock climbing…). The possibilities are endless.

Thanks for reading, and I hope you are able to implement one of these resolutions in the upcoming year. Do it for you. Because you deserve to feel better. You’re worth it. In the words of Shane Koyczan, “Admit to the bad days, the impossible nights. Listen to the insights of those who have been there, but come back. They will tell you; you can stack misery, you can pack disappear you can even wear your sorrow — but come tomorrow you must change your clothes. Everyone knows Pain. We are not meant to carry it forever. We were never meant to hold it so closely, so be certain in the belief that what pain belongs to now will belong soon to then. That when someone asks you ‘how was your day’, realize that for some of us, it’s the only way we know how to say ‘Be calm. Loosen your grip, opening each palm, slowly now — let go.’”