A very Happy and Healthy New Year to you all! I had a wonderful break with my family and particularly enjoyed a special week with my gorgeous sister who was visiting from London. Although the weather was cold and windy we loved exploring some of the stunning landscape that Kerry has to offer and we walked, breathed in the glorious fresh air and talked and talked and talked! It was a tonic and cost nothing and we made a committment to do it more often.
This put me in mind of all the New Year’s resolutions that traditionally get made during January and that I used to make too. I don’t do so anymore because I have made an on-going committment to lead my life in the way that works for me, which is therefore sustainable and helps to support real changes and healthy choices. It has taken me years to get here but I can honestly say that I am happier and healthier than I was in my 20’s and 30’s, as well as being a great deal wiser!
I get concerned about all the resolutions and promises that many people make to stop or ‘give up’ perceived ‘bad habits’, since they are never sustainable unless we understand and address the real issues behind why we adopted these habits in the first place. Without this it is all too easy to get stuck in a pattern of being unable to sustain a resolution and then feeling bad about ourselves because we didn’t stick to it – not a healthy way to start the year! How can we successfully sustain a healthy diet if we don’t know, for example, why we crave sugar or have any other food compulsions? How can we just decide to stop smoking or drinking alchohol until we look at what such habits and addictions actually mean to us and why we may have turned to them in the first place?