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Issue 3; New Year, New You

By T W Coombs

Welcome to 2016 you lovely lot, let begin with how New Year always begins.

We have over indulged, sang Auld Lang Syne, kissed a couple of strangers and have what for many is the worst hangover in all of time, well, until next year and we sit and think we should now work to improve ourselves.  

This usually involves the most common, join a gym and get fit, eat better, loose weight, be more assertive at work, be happy more, be less angry (oh that’s mine, due to work stress quite often).  But a study by the University of Bristol in 2007 showed that there was only a 22% success rate in the candidates they followed.  Now if you take this as a whole, a 5th of the country who make these resolutions don’t actually achieve any of them, and apparently 10% will forget they even made them.

It started with the ancient Babylonians who used to promise their Gods to return borrowed objects and pay their debts, the it is documented that the Romans used to make promises to the God Janus as it was his month, January.  But after hundred of years we now make promises to ourselves at the beginning of each year that we break time and time again, why is this? Because everyone makes promises that are unrealistic.  I once said I would stop eating biscuits, and give up smoking, the biscuit one lasted two days the smoking one eight years, I gave last summer on my own terms not the terms of New Year.  The loose weight and get fit is a staple and sees Gyms fill up with new people for a month before they give up, the easiest way to have a resolution is to be more charitable or be better to your fellow humans or be better to yourself.

When I say yourself, I am not talking about the usual, weight loss or not drinking a bottle of wine a night, I mean to take some time out in your day to have some time to yourself.  To reflect on who you are and where you are.  I took this up a couple of months ago as I was getting more stressed at work and then I started bringing it home, the stress not the work, which is never good.  Why didn’t I do this as a resolution, well last years resolution was give up having resolutions and do them during the year if I could.  So taking time for me was the best thing I did for myself and I believe everyone should do it.  You can do this in so many ways, mine is write fiction (book in progress), I also play the guitar to some mild competency I also read my kindle.  Now this may seem like just normal daily tasks, but what it needs to be is something you love doing that takes no real effort to do.  This maybe the Gym but unlikely, it is time to deal with the stressful and chaotic world we live in by taking some time away from it.  It doesn't even have to be long, just half an hour a day does the trick for me but everyone is different.  It is to do something that doesn't need to be done, or has an end results it is a non task to clear your mind and help you think and relax.  I would suggest having a massage daily but this is unrealistic.  Just try it, it is really helpful and will help your minds relax and before you know it you will have become a new you, or more like the old you.



So when you’re asked what your resolution is, tell them to you don't have one as it is better to have them as the year goes on, but you will spend more time with yourself, and maybe have one less biscuit and drink one more glass of water a day. But lets not push it too much.