New Year Resolution Ideas

In a few days, week, month, year and a decade will change.  And I’m sure you want to change too. But if you are anything like me, you’ll find that there are so many ways one can think of improving self that it gets difficult to decide. Worry not, for here are some easy, doable New Year resolution ideas for the coming year.

Start cooking more at home
Over the years, researches have pointed out the surprising benefits of home-cooked meals. It has been scientifically proven that those who eat home- made food regularly are happier and healthier. Their food-eating time has fewer distractions and lesser chances of shifting to sugar-loaded and processed foods, which involuntarily increases body mass and unhealthy weight.

Travel
Travelling opens our eyes to new ideas, cultures and places. In a year, plan to take at least three vacations – two thrifty ones and one to explore little luxuries of life. For the first one, delve into the neighbourhood on foot. Visit than new place that has opened recently, plan a picnic in a garden, visit a fort, go to a farmer’s market – anything you haven’t done in the last one year and take a moment to savour the beauty around. For the second vacation, plan it to a destination that is about a few hours away. To make the trip interesting, travel in a train. See the great countryside along with beautiful fields growing out the seasonal crops. And take one holiday to go somewhere far – a different country or the edge of your own. Make that trip luxurious. 

Volunteer weekly
Though I’d love to write “daily”, it is not something that I am able to do myself so avoiding to preach about it. We all are blessed in our own unique ways. Volunteering helps us to give back and if your acts of kindness make about an iota of difference in someone’s life, I say you should grab that chance.

Maintain a balance between what you think, speak and do
Our mind thinks about 20,000 thoughts a day, very little of which are useful and most are waste. Change that. Think only what you need to do, speak only when you need to and do what you speak/preach. Don’t let the mind wander. Here are some simple ways to do that. 

Meditate daily
Meditation is a spiritual experience. If done right, it can open your own mind in ways you did not know was possible. Living a happy life is practical meditation in action. 

Sleep on time
Did you know lack of sleep costs about $411 billion in lost productivity across United States? A Fortune study reveals that a shockingly high number of people lead in unhealthy sleeping habits meaning they are either sleeping less or not getting the sound sleep. If you are one of those night owls who feels the night brings out the best in you, perhaps the coming year is a good opportunity to retrospect and change that habit for good.

Be a WOW
You are not far away from meeting your own WOW version. Promise to be a better person, learn something new every Sunday and follow it up the entire week. In 52 weeks, you would definitely better than from where you started.

Go sugar free
Celebrate sugar-free week every month. That means no soda, chocolates, cakes, sweets, Indian mithais, bread, cereals, salad dressings – sugar has surprising ways of finding itself in your meals. This year, you can make a resolution to reduce your consumption of sugar and in turn be a step closer to good health.


Other than the first one, all the New Year resolutions are my personal ones. I hope at some level, you’ll also find a way to connect with them. If there are any that you’d like to share, give me a shout out in the comments section below and I’d love to read.

Thank you for your time.
God Bless.
N

Anger Is Deadly

A close family member of mine gets so mad that he starts smashing things. His rage blinds him by insecurity and anger. At some point, it doesn’t matter who is right or wrong. His trembling voice poisons his mind beyond his own control and things get ugly. What follows is bad mood for days, turning of frustrations inward, leading to more abuse or deliberate self-harm. 

A lot of people don’t realize their anger is destructive. It intensifies with time due to the trigger points that make it more uncontrollable. 

Anger is unnatural

Human body is made to feel the experiences around us. The beauty of nature, little moments of joy, vast horizons of talents, incredible gifts of the Almighty, sweetness of relationships, warmness of compassion – the list is endless. Anger blinds us from these and takes us to the dark world inside where the mind starts to justify offensive behaviour. 

Seeds of this poison work their way out in the form of jealousy, hatred, unhealthy comparisons, ego, and loathing of others. As these emotions consume a person’s mind, the body starts to react. We develop certain behavioural aspects that become a part of our personality. For example, we begin to ignore/not give importance to others’ opinions, try to impose our view point or simply give a death stare to show our displeasure.


Effects of anger
From higher anxiety levels to change in the basic DNA – anger is more deadly that you can imagine. Experts suggest that anger has become so common that an average person feels its wrath about once a day and gets annoyed about thrice a day. 

About 45% of adults regularly lose their calm at their workplace, whereas 38% feel unhappy at work. More than one third of the world population suffers from anxiety or depression, which have become the largest causes of long-term sickness. More of these statistics can be read here at Mind Your Anger.
  

Anger Management
A lot has been said about anger management. Other than stress management, it is perhaps the most requested topic for discussion during my meditation workshops. Though people are generally aware about their anger and want to actively use anger management in their lives, their own personality restricts them sometimes. 

Anger management aims to reduce these very issues. It encourages acceptance towards emotional variations and physiological reasons that provoke anger. You can’t control external circumstances, nor can you put a stop to others’ habits, but you can control your reaction to it. There’s a complete post written on anger management of this blog which you can access here. 

Mindful Meditation

Once Buddha came to speak at his sermon carrying a satin cloth in his hands. He asked people what they saw, to which everyone replied in unison that it was a beautiful satin cloth. Then Buddha started tying knots to it. After putting about five of them, he asked people whether it was the same cloth. People confirmed it was, though it was little

different now because it had knots.

To this, Buddha replied that it was what he wanted them to understand. 

“You miss seeing the fine satin fiber lines because you are in knots.” 

Mindfulness meditation teaches you to be the same cloth but without knots. He then asked the best way to open them, and if pulling the cloth from both sides would help the purpose. People replied that it wasn’t the correct way as it would in fact tighten the knots. 

Acknowledging that, Buddha told them that even though most know it wouldn’t help, they still try to open their knots by pulling! He added that while the intention of an individual to overcome difficulties can be termed as good, the mean adopted to do it is not always the right one. In confusion of solving out something, most make it complicated. 

“If you want to open the bumps, close your mind to disturbances, and untie them with caution.”

What is Mindfulness Meditation?
Mindfulness meditation is being in present. It means doing the current work with utmost clarity, patience and dedication. It is not a condition to be achieved, but a way of living. For example, if you are eating, being a mindful eater would mean that you are aware of how much to eat and stop when your stomach feels full. Mindfulness meditation makes you aware of your body, thoughts and surroundings. 

According to the statistics listed on this website, mindfulness meditation improves anxiety levels 60% of the time. The same site lists reduction of risk of being hospitalized for coronary disease by 87%, relief in the symptoms of insomnia by 75% of the time, increase in productivity by 120% and reduction in PMS symptoms by 57% as some of the direct effects of mindfulness meditation. 

Mindfulness Meditation Exercises
Most people think of meditation as a daunting task, because it is only when they sit in silence they realize clutter in mind. These are the random thoughts that go on, without necessarily having any connection with the present reality. Mindfulness meditation encourages to accept them and move beyond. Since body and environment influence thoughts and our reality, mindfulness teaches us to be kind and convert our clutter into something meaningful and loving. If you want to know some techniques for it, read on:

1. Sit quiet and observe: For about 10 minutes every day, keep everything aside. Put your smartphone at a place where it can not disturb you and observe the little movements of nature around you. Ants, birds, leaves, wind, smell of soil, chirping of birds, noise of a dog bark, smell of cooking, sound of a car engine, blast of sunlight, ripples of water, colourfulness of flowers – there are many things that happen simultaneously around us. Find your centre and notice the comfort of sitting still.
2. Put positivity in practice: Sweet words, like flowers, are essence of our innate nature. Speak slowly, but speak positively and if you want to learn positive thinking, read this. 
3. List the details: Anytime, anywhere – list at least 10 details of a place/moment/incident that you would not have otherwise noticed. 
4. Say no to multitasking: Doing more than one chore at a time wastes more time. Do a task fully before moving on to another one. You mind would want to jump, but resist the temptation of leaving something in between. Don’t let your mobile phone break your cycle. 
5. Develop 2/60 cycle: Spend every 2 minutes of an hour to embrace silence, mentally getting ready for the next one hour. Use mindfulness to give your mind some time to shift its wavelength one from task to another. 

Benefits of Mindfulness Meditation

Clear mind: When you learn to control your thoughts and stay in the present, the mind stops wandering. It moves away from the buts and ifs, and stays where you want it to be. The calming effect increases concentration and reduces the chances of immoral behaviour. 

Happiness becomes a choice: As I wrote earlier, recognising the importance of current time is bliss. Read a small story about it.

Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction

Like anything you read? Want to experience meditation? I am one crazy-about-meditation kind of person who likes to experiment it as much as I can. Give me a shout & I’d love to share! 

Love,

Nitima

Email: Sood(dot)nitima(at the rate)gmail(dot)com