You have decided to start a new ritual of self-care with the creation of your Self-Care Treasure Chest - good job! Self-care is especially important for changing unhealthy habits. By prioritizing self-care, you can improve your physical and mental health, which can help you break free from unhealthy habits. For example, many people choose a 'Dry January' to remind themselves why some habits such as drinking alcohol can be both a pleasure and a pain. All things require a balance, and when we allow them to become too much of a good thing, they often quickly become too much of a bad thing. However, you have probably noticed that making extreme changes can be very difficult. Many people set big goals without fundamentally understanding how CHANGE occurs. 

For example, if you decide NOT to consume alcohol during January, it will be helpful to think about how to support the CHANGE that you desire: 

1. What will take its place? Everything takes head space. If you do not drink alcohol, what can fill its place? Is there a substitute beverage? Maybe it is not a beverage at all, but an activity. Great! Will it be reading, walking, hiking, or writing a letter of thanks to a friend? 

2. Are there places and situations that will make it next to impossible to succeed? Do you also need to change your social calendar, habits and rituals to support the change? What are your triggers? Sometimes, we reach for our vices out of self-care - but it's a very maladapted kind of self-care. Think about your triggers, and think through how you are going to make changes to support yourself when you are triggered. It is too easy to fall into your old habits so you will need a game plan for when that happens. Expect it. Anticipate it. 

3. Who will support you? Stating your goal out loud helps you remain accountable for your actions. Can you find a Dry January Buddy to keep each other in check? In any case, you would not swim in the deep ocean without a buddy - and making big, lasting changes is exactly like swimming in the ocean in that there are BIG forces that can work against you. Find a buddy and help one another. Your buddy, by the way, is someone who does not make judgment on your actions, but rather simply helps you meet your stated objective. 

4. Each time you succeed, celebrate! You must practice the adoption of a NEW habit by rewarding positive behavior. However, you might have forgotten that celebration comes in MANY forms.

>> Here is where a fundamental change occurs: 

IMAGINE YOUR "SELF-CARE TREASURE CHEST." If alcohol takes up too much of the space in your treasure chest, there isn't enough room for other things.   

If you feel you must deny yourself a "good" thing, often it is because it has become a problematically large allocation of the space in your Treasure Chest. What happens when you fill your treasure chest with other stuff that also makes you feel rewarded? 

A self-care treasure chest is a ritual of creating a physical space for rewards supporting new habits.

As you think about your intentions for yourself in this new year, it is wonderful to make resolutions and set goals. It is also imperative to recognize how to support the changes you want to make. Think through these 4 steps, and start to think about what is in your current treasure chest, and what might be included in your future treasure chest.