Have you made your new years resolutions yet? Set your intentions for the coming year, or even the decade?
How long do you honestly feel you will honour them? Lets be honest- many of our resolutions have their roots in a post Christmas detox – eat, drink and over indulge in the festive season, and then spend maybe a month going to the gym, doing detox fasts, going tee total for a couple of weeks or so… but by mid Feb, we slip back into old habits as the days pass by and we haven’t made any lasting changes. Why is that? Why do we so desperately want to do good things for our bodies, but we give in to our vices at the slightest excuse? Is our will power so weak, that we are no longer able to make choices for ourselves and actually stand by them?
What is it that we really need to change in order to become better versions of ourselves?
When we are out with friends, celebrating a birthday, on our holidays, during festivities, we are seeking a high. We want to have the best time. Take a look at social media – isn’t it mainly showing us having our best times? But what makes these times special? Is it the food we are eating, the alcohol we are downing, the places we are at, how good we look in our glad rags? What good would any of these things be, if we were not enjoying the company we were with?
It’s the people that matter. The warm, evenings by the fire with our families, the walk in the countryside with our partner, the laughter shared between good friends. These are the things that really give us a high. The connection to those we love; the good times shared.
The changes we make that will give us the highs we so desperately seek in our lives without destroying our health, are to spend more time with those we love. This is time invested in our happiness – true happiness, with no strings.
When we are happy, we are naturally healthier, and with that comes the desire to do things for our bodies that support our health. We naturally start to care about what we eat, how much alcohol we consume, whether we are treating our bodies with the respect they deserve.
LORRAINE EREIRA 