It’s that time of the year again when we see the golden opportunity to improve our quality of life by changing an undesired trait or behavior that we see in ourselves. With the very best of intentions, we write down a long list of New Year’s resolutions. If strictly followed, we are convinced it will allow us to blossom into the best version of ourselves. Yet what we are truly missing is being able to see how we can adopt smaller steps to become healthier and happier and move in the right direction to accomplish our goals. All around the world, losing weight features prominently on lists of resolutions. You will begin to get bombarded with emails offering you ways to lose weight. And while weight loss may improve your health it is not the only thing we should depend on as a marker for happiness.

After all, we can be thin yet miserable if key parts of our lives are not addressed such as our own selfcare. I am referring to the stress component of our lives. I have spoken about this many times- we need to allocate enough time for spirituality, exercise, sleep, diet and relationships whether at home or at work. If any of these are tipped out of balance, they can cause a cascade of events that affect our health. You have heard me mention this several times, diets don’t work – that’s the bottom line. The only way to make changes that will stick for years to come, and also prevent issues from occurring in the future, is to focus on the consistency of a healthy lifestyle.