Resolutions 101: Fulfilling your good intentions
Four thousand years ago, the ancient Babylonians started a tradition of the celebration of the New Year by making new year’s resolutions. Their new year began when they planted their crops and promised their gods that they would pay their debts and return anything they’d borrowed, in order to gain blessings. This is likely the oldest precedents for our modern-day New Year resolutions.
Around 46 B.C., Julius Caesar designated the start of the new year as January 1st. January is named after the Roman god of doors, Janus, because January is the door to the new year, Romans would promise him their best behavior in the coming year.
In early Christianity, the first day of each year became the traditional occasion for considering past mistakes and resolving to improve in the new year.
Elul, the month that leads up to the Jewish new year, is the period of time when Jewish people look deeply into an accounting of the soul and prepare spiritually for the new year. It is a time for turning toward wholeness in their relationships with others, with God and with their true selves.
We are ever hopeful that the new year will be a new start. Every year we imagine that the arrival of a new year will magically provide the catalyst, motivation and persistence we need to reinvent ourselves. Yet year after year we make the same resolutions with little success.
How to fulfil our best intentions this time around
According to recent research, about 45 percent of Americans say they make New Year’s resolutions but fewer than 10 percent fulfill their goals. Why is it so difficult for us to live up to our own resolutions? Probably it’s because–if they were easy and realistic—we would have accomplished them already.
When people try to take on too much or with no strategy in mind, they tend to get discouraged and resign themselves to failure.
Do these resolutions sound familiar?
- get fit
- quit smoking, drink less
- learn something new
- get organized
- be kind and helpful to others
- curb impulse spending
- find effective self-care strategy
The good news is that in 2020 there is one simple thing you can do to improve your chances of achieving your goals.
The Transcendental Meditation technique measurably improves health and balance in the mind, body and emotions. Decades of scientific validation show benefits from the TM practice that support the successful attainment of the resolutions listed above. These benefits include:
- Increased energy and mind-body coordination
- Relief from stress, anxiety and biological imbalances that lead to substance abuse
- Increased intelligence, comprehension, creativity
- Improved organizing ability in the brain
- Improved harmony in relationships
- Reduced brain dysfunction that leads to impulsive behavior
- TM is your best self-care strategy
“When a person practices TM, the effects are pan-systemic—every system of the body is affected from the brain down. It is good for the whole mind-body system.”
Frank Staggers, MD,
Director of Berkeley Addiction Treatment Services
With TM you can welcome the new year with confidence. Meditate, put your best foot forward and enjoy.
Resolve to learn TM in 2020
About the Author
Vanessa Vidal is the national director of TM for Women in the USA
