Three Ways to Relax and Renew in the New Year

Are you looking for a way to renew yourself in the new year? After the holidays are over is the perfect time to reflect on personal goals and learn how to treat yourself well. Creating a calming and cozy environment in your home is one of the best ways to do this! I’m sharing three relaxing rituals I enjoy, during the colder months especially, with several items from Walmart.

*This post contains affiliate links. By shopping through these links, you are helping my small business, with no extra cost to you—thanks!

Thanks, Walmart, for sponsoring this post! (All words and opinions are my own.)

I’m a homebody by nature, so I enjoy spending time working on my space to make it a welcoming and relaxing place to be. Then I also get to reap the benefits of that work, by sitting back, taking in the views, and allowing my body to reset and renew.

The new year can be a weird and, honestly, kind of depressing time. The fun and frenzy of the holidays are over, our homes seem a little bare with decorations taken down, and the weather is a bit bleak (at least in Iowa where I live).

Instead of letting the winter blues get me down, I’ve worked hard over the last few years to find things that fill my cup and allow me to keep my happiness up. There are lots of activities that I do, but I wanted to share just a few of the the things I do to relax and renew in our home.

1. MoDRN Solid Print Hand Woven Jute Woven Floor Pouf

2. 360 Lighting Modern Pharmacy Floor Lamp in Antique Brass Color

3. Mainstays Linen Textured Semi-Sheer Rod Pocket Curtain Panel

4. Beautiful 6 Quart Touchscreen Air Fryer, White Icing by Drew Barrymore

5. Haven Retro Computer Desk with Riser

6. Desert Fields Two Door Bookmatch Bookcase

7. Better Homes & Gardens Abott Stoneware 16 Piece Dinnerware Set

8. Stone Lain Jessica Stoneware 12-Piece Round Dinnerware Set, Taupe

9. Mainstays 4 Pieces Glass Kitchen Canister Set with Bamboo Lids

10. Beautiful 1.7L One-Touch Electric Kettle, White Icing by Drew Barrymore

11. Country Kitchen Silicone Cooking Utensils, 8 Pc Kitchen Utensil Set

12. Yamazaki Home Food Storage Canister

13. Yogi Tea - Yogi Favorites Variety Pack

14. Little Women (150th Anniversary Edition) (Hardcover)

15. Better Homes & Gardens Woodgrain Touch Table Lamp, Walnut and Brushed Brass Finish

16. LR Home Embroidered Chevron Cream 50" x 60" Braided Fringe Throw Blanket

The cool part about these tips for how to relax and renew in the new year is that they are totally customizable for you! I’ll give you the broad ideas and you can narrow them down to your personal tastes.

Almost everything I share here on the blog can be used as a jumping off point for your own life or home. We all have different styles and ways of doing things, but it’s nice to have inspiration that encourages us to do certain things, even if we might tweak them in a way that better suits how we like to decorate or spend our free time.

Drinking warm beverages can have several health benefits, including relieving nasal congestion, aiding in digestion, and increasing circulation. While all the benefits are amazing, the one I want to focus on is decreasing stress levels. The ritual around making a hot drink alone will help you to relax, but then drinking the beverage itself can help promote a lowering of how your body is reacting to stress. Now, if you choose to drink coffee, the same probably won’t be true, because of the caffeine, but herbal tea, warm milk, or even decaffeinated coffee, can help you relax and allow your body to release tension and stress.

I didn’t start drinking tea until well into my adult years. This wasn’t something that my family did when I was growing up, but it was something Jason’s family did—primarily his mom—so he’s my influence on this tip. A few years ago, he asked me to get some “relaxing” tea that he could drink before bed. I watched him make it for quite a while before trying it myself. The tea I got at that time (and the one we still drink) is Yogi Stress Relief. The flavor is very mild, if you’re new to the tea world, and has actually grown on me over the years.

There is something about the act of boiling the water for the tea, getting the mugs ready with the tea bags, and then holding the steaming mugs of tea, waiting for them to cool down, that is so relaxing to me now. The nightly ritual tells me that it’s time for me to relax, quiet my mind, and get ready for some (hopefully) good sleep.

Drinking tea (or your warm beverage of choice) doesn’t have to just be for night, but that is a great time to add this ritual to your routine, if you’ve been wanting to try it. During the winter, of course, there’s something extra special about putting the kettle on and fixing a warm beverage. I love the cozy and relaxing feeling that accompanies a hot drink whenever I have one.

Walmart Home has so many beautiful items to help start your new ritual of making and enjoying a warm drink, but the Beautiful Electric Kettle has to be my favorite. We had been using an electric kettle I bought several years ago when we were at our old house. It absolutely worked just fine, but it was a bright turquoise color that just doesn’t work in our new kitchen. I always wanted it put away and we’d have to drag it out to make tea or French press coffee.

I finally upgraded to the Beautiful Electric Kettle by Drew Barrymore in white and I couldn’t be happier! It’s gorgeous in its design and heats the water up in a jiffy! Plus, it has different settings, depending on what drink you’re making. I haven’t experimented too much with those, but am excited to try. The price point on it is so good, considering how nice looking it is. I definitely recommend, if you have been wanting to get an electric kettle or you want to upgrade the one you have.

This is something I have, shamefully, gotten really far away from in my own life. I have great intentions, including a stack on my bedside table, but I almost never start and then finish a book. I want that to change this year, and beyond, so I’m trying to read a few pages (at least) every day. The act of reading is such a good time to allow your body to relax, while your mind is engaged. If you are trying to get into a routine of exercising, though, you can also use reading as a great way to spend time on the treadmill, bike, or elliptical. I subscribe to several magazines for just this reason, but I suppose I should be taking my books down to work out with instead!

I watched the latest movie version of Little Women over Christmas break last year and fell in love with it all over again. It’s a beautiful movie that I could stare at all day. I’m very embarrassed to admit, though, that I had never read the book. I’m not sure why, but it was just never on my reading list. So, I ordered the book Little Women by Louisa May Alcott and have been reading it, a few pages at a time, over the last couple of weeks.

When I got out of the habit of reading regularly, I somehow also developed a sleepiness tied to reading. Any time I sit down to read, I get so tired that I end up putting the book down and closing my eyes. To help get over this, I’m trying to read earlier in the day and not in bed. Reading in bed is wonderful…but not if you can’t get more than two pages in before you drift off.

Hopefully sometime soon, I’ll be able to read pages and pages before I start to feel tired, but until then, I’m feeling proud of myself for taking steps toward renewing an old pastime that I let slip by the wayside.

When you think about relaxing at home, what do you think about? For me, it’s sitting in “my spot” on the couch or lounging in bed. While both of those are great options, they don’t always encourage me to do anything other than just veg out. Since I’m trying to create the ritual of making and drinking a warm beverage and, also to, start reading more, I wanted to put together a little spot where I could make both of these activities feel extra special!

We have a chair in our bedroom that I picked up at an estate sale a while back. I just sort of dropped it in place and didn’t do much else. Since then, I’ve hung a painting that was originally in my grandparents’ home and a pillow from their old sofa as well, but that’s it.

I thought it would be fun to create a little relax and renew spot in this little nook, but without having to buy too many things. I grabbed this really nice jute woven floor pouf, and then accessorized with pieces I already had.

Making these little tweaks to this corner of our bedroom was so easy and gave me a spot to sit with my warm mug of tea and read a few (or many) pages of my new book. You don’t need an extravagant space to make time for yourself to relax and renew—you just need a spot that you’ve set aside for this reason. Knowing that you’ve created such a place will hopefully encourage you to continue building these rituals and habits for yourself.

I’ve only shared a few ways you can relax and renew in the new year, but there are many more, including finally working on a space in your home that you’ve been putting off. Walmart Home has so many budget-friendly and beautiful items online that can help you achieve that goal. I had a lot of fun looking through the products—I just can’t get over the quality and style that Walmart is offering!

Let me know if you decide to set some time and space aside for yourself to relax and renew. It’s so important to take care of ourselves, and the tips I shared here are so easy to incorporate into your daily routine, even if just for a few moments. If you’ve done any of these things and don’t mind sharing, post in your story on Instagram and tag me! You can find me on Instagram at @hilaryprall.