Who doesn’t want more health and happiness?

 Every year starts with the promise of being better than the previous one. It is human nature to hope for more. We yearn for more prosperity, more love, and who doesn’t want more health and happiness?

 Most everyone would agree that health and happiness are intimately connected. We cannot have one without the other.  It is also common knowledge that if we have proper nutrition, adequate exercise and sufficient rest our health would be fairly good.

 If that is the case, why are health and happiness so elusive? If all it takes is the right diet, moving around some and catching a nap here and there, why is it that we often feel tired, irritable and grouchy and fall victims of so many annoying ailments?

 Here is what some believe: the state of well-being that we call health is the result of our thoughts and feelings. I know this to be true for me and I choose to make the following my new year’s resolutions.

 I live in integrity with myself. I declare my independence from trying to please others, from keeping a front of perfection, from avoiding conflict and from trying to be liked. All these create toxic emotions that are poisonous to my body. The person that I am is valuable, capable and lovable.  

I live in the present moment. I release my attachment to memories, even the good ones. I let go off resentments and I also stop worrying about the future. Spending time in the past fills my heart with melancholy and envisioning a future that I cannot control creates unnecessary anxiety. The present is filled with endless possibilities and it is where I am most powerful and effective. 

I keep my promises, specially the ones I make to myself. I stop postponing my personal appointments, I attend to my own health with the same diligence that I attend to the health of others, and I give my mind the gift of rest and my soul the blessing of faith. My body is the temple where my mind and soul dwell and it deserves attention.

Health and happiness are not the mere absence of disease, but a state of well-being that comes from the holistic integration of body, mind and soul. Give yourself the gift of perfect health and enduring joy. Be who you are, live in the now and honor your promises to yourself.