New Year resolutions often emphasize on weight loss, developing a hobby, exercising, or increased productivity, thus suggesting that we’re not sufficient as is. It turns life into a continuous task of self-improvement, robbing it of its joy. This year, let’s resolve to embrace life without the constant pressure to fix ourselves all the time.

Let’s aim to enjoy life by focusing on additions rather than subtractions. To start, let’s incorporate a superfood into our daily diet each month.

In the realm of health and wellness, superfoods are recognized as nutritional powerhouses, offering significant benefits to overall health. These include plant-based foods and select animal products known for their exceptional nutrient density. Superfoods play a vital role in promoting a holistic and healthy lifestyle.

We can elevate our well-being with the curated inclusion of twelve superfoods — one for each month in 2024.

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As the clock strikes 12, the calendar resets and a new chapter is unveiled. Here are 12 resolutions that can help you revamp your life this New Year.

January 2024: The Healthy Wealthy Way

“Eat healthy, think healthy, and walk healthy.” Start right by speaking kind words that make you love yourself and others. Live the healthy way, work out and practise gratitude.

February 2024: Go Spick-and-Span!

Declutter your home and workspace, especially the digital space. Tidy your email inbox, organize files, and unsubscribe to unnecessary notifications.

March 2024: Penny Peaks

Identify your wants and needs. Take control of your finances, save more, and eliminate debts to become independent, secure and stable. This will widen opportunities for future endeavours.

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In the fast-paced world we inhabit, it is easy to forget the power of a simple act of wishing good things to happen in the lives of others. Imagine a world where we pause and imagine happiness and well-being for everyone in our thoughts and express these in words and actions. This good habit would uplift and transform us and those around us. We will experience immense happiness and boundless freedom flowing into our own life. So the art of blessing is reciprocal — a cycle of positive energy that returns to enrich our own existence.

Make it a habit in your life in the days to come. Start with a simple practice: consciously wish all the people you encounter in your daily life to have a happy and successful day. Be grateful to those who have shown you kindness and love. Similarly, wish good things for those who may not have treated you well in the past. Understand that everyone is on their journey, and your good feelings and wishes would serve as source of power and positive energy in them. You, too, will experience abundant inner peace and joy.

Expand this habit to those who accompany you in your daily life — wish maximum good for the driver, the commuters, and the conductors. Extend this towards those who work tirelessly to ensure the smooth functioning of our society — the policeman, the postman, the watchman, washerman, milkman, and the cleaners. Bless your school, college, hospital, your town, your governing bodies, and the business centres. Recognize the interconnectedness of all lives, and let your blessings create ripples of positive energy and goodness around you in this New Year!

As you step into the New Year, carry the awareness that you are a source of divine blessings. Let your thoughts, words, and feelings be imbued with the spirit of goodwill towards all creation. We have dedicated this issue of the TTT with articles to help you on this positive path that you can choose. Wish you all a year filled with abundant blessings and the transformative power of goodwill.

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Do you recall the time when you were 10 years old, and you used to wait eagerly for the summer break so that you could go on that vacation to your cousins’ place out of the city or country? The train or air travel, all-nighters with midnight snacks and sneaking scary movies while your parents slept. Do you recollect when the two or three weeks ended you would keenly long for the year to pass till summer break came back again? Time passed so slowly back then while you waited, didn’t it? Exam week would drag, school would seem sluggish. But the dance festival and sports day would come and go at jet speed. How you wished you could speed up that time, grow up, be independent and do all the things those grown-up kids used to do?

How similar is it today? Or is it the opposite? Did 2023 just fly by you?

Do you notice that more often than before, time picks the pace of a Ferrari today? Usually it seems to fly when you’re having fun and drags when you are bored. But the emotional perception of our time is so vast, it surprises us when we see the clock and wonder, “Oh, I had two hours to finish this essay, and three hours have passed and I’m only halfway through! Is this clock running right?” Or another time when you were with a friend at the park and suddenly you see that your mum is here to pick you up. “I just came here, mom, it’s not even been thirty minutes, you promised me an hour and a half.” Mum calmly reminds you, “It’s been almost half hour over ninety minutes, dear.”

You were probably bored with your essay and essentially time had slowed down to the point that it put you in a daydreaming zone that you lost track and speeded it up fantasizing about something nice. And whilst with your friend, time together brought on so much happiness that the dopamine rush in your brain soared high and you did not want the delight to end; so, you wanted more time. Your brain insisted that the ninety minutes flew by.

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It’s not just making a New Year’s resolution that’s important; it’s about keeping it!

A few days after the New Year, a local school had a party for its teachers and the principal asked all of them to give him a list of the resolutions they had made at the beginning of the year. They did so, and on the day of the teacher’s function, he put up the list. There was a general feeling of bonhomie and good humour as they read each other’s resolutions, except for one teacher, “Where is my resolution,” she asked the principal crossly, “Did you think it was unworthy of being displayed?”

The principal assured her that he had no such compulsions and that her paper had obviously been misplaced, “Misplaced!” she screamed, “How could you misplace my paper and not any of the others?” The principal tried to calm her down, but the lady was furious and ranted and raved, till her superior, in order to quieten her, said that he would go to his office and see whether it was there.

The paper was there, and as the principal read what the resolution was, he broke into a chuckle, which slowly turned into a sad smile:

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Ice, ice, baby!

When you get to scoop up everything you love in a cup and grab a spoon, you know you’re going to love it. Ais Kacang, a Malaysian speciality, contains a bit of this and that and promises to make your taste buds do a little tap dance! Shaved ice, jelly, red beans, flavoured syrups, milk, fruits and nuts blended together to make a lovely dessert that quenches your thirst and is perfect to eat on a hot, sunny day.

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It’s that time of year again when you set a New Year’s resolution. You establish it with the best of intentions, staying consistent for a few weeks, but then give up.

So what will it be this year? A new hobby, playing an instrument, exercising or perhaps staying off our phones and gadgets for two hours daily?

This year, I propose that we switch things up a bit. Let’s keep our resolutions at bay and celebrate health differently. This New Year, let’s ‘Celebrate a World of Flavours’.

Trying different flavours of the world enhances one’s palate and knowledge about one’s own food culture as well as various other culinary traditions. Every cuisine offers dishes which incorporate foods from every food group. This allows you to try new dishes from across the globe while also ensuring you receive a range of nutrients needed for good health.

Here are a few ways to embrace global cultures and cuisines when planning your meals and snack throughout the year.

Bring the world to your table

Vary your meals to include favourites from around the world. Healthful options are available, even if time is limited. Online videos, cookbooks, and recipes from chefs around the world can guide you through the process of cooking.

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Happy New Year 2023! “If you could wish upon a star, what would you wish for?” Here’s a brand New Year gifted to each person for wishes full of new dreams, new aspirations and new plans. Cheers to zooming into star trek 2023 with hope, courage and joy!

Goal! It’s like winning a game of Bingo; there’s a bumper prize if you win ‘full house.’ Same with football. We had an overdose of the World Cup in December 2022. Teams worked together to get to that ‘Star Cup of Victory.’ There’s excitement, there’s planning, there’s coaching, there’s practice, there’s courage and there’s a bit of fear of the future, too. There’s that rush of adrenaline! However, one must take calculated risks and move ahead by giving it one’s best shot or best kick forward by scoring a goal. Lift your collar as you score; you are adding stars to your portfolio.

What’s your big goal? Write it down — your idea, dream and go-point in life. What are the different ways in which you can reach that goal? Will you be dodging around the different threats and opponents in your life? Or will you just go for it with the force of the universe backing you? How will you chart out the course of your life like the Master of a ship at sea?

1. Trust God

It makes things simpler and easier. He’s the Big Boss, the go-to person who plans all the intricate details in your life. When your plan aligns with His plan, only then can you be a success. There’s no other way, otherwise your ship will be caught in a current and go around in circles with all your plans in it, till it sinks. So God is your Master Blaster who will blow the horn in your life through tempests, storms and at sea to calm waters.

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Do you feel like 2022 just passed you by? Did you think at any time that you could have made it more productive? Did it cross your mind that you had made resolutions that just slipped through the cracks in your memory? Do you sense a disappointment that you did not live up to someone else’s or maybe your own expectations? Failure, criticism, dissatisfaction, remorse, frustration and regret about your year all signify end of the year blues. Perhaps you’re really beating yourself hard for something you absolutely wanted to achieve but could not. And now, the New Year is almost here, and you feel you didn’t do justice to the one you’re just bidding goodbye to. The glass is half full and half empty if you’re looking at it practically. But remember, sometimes a half glass is enough to quench your thirst. Follow these tips to help you not feel pessimistic about what hasn’t been accomplished. Don’t let the end of the year blues eat into your happiness.

Be kind to yourself

Self-appreciation is easy on sunny days. It’s only when the dark clouds of under achievement and under-accomplishment strike you that you begin to demean and berate yourself for not being good enough. These are the days you seem to remember all your faults like they’re on a bulleted list plastered to the ceiling, staring in your face as soon as you wake up. Nobody can make you feel as little or as large as you can than your own self. So today onwards, choose self-kindness. If you can forgive others and be compassionate in their time of need, try doing the same for yourself. Remember, you may have tried and it may not have worked out. Maybe you can try again. Maybe you didn’t try and that’s okay too. Redirect your goodwill towards yourself and see how sadness and self-contempt fade away.

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