Teaching the new year, old tricks

Is the New Year tradition of renewal and resolution, making us forgot the good things we have learnt?

It feels that our aspiration to be different and better at the beginning of every year, is our way of coping with the guilt of over-eating and drinking- perhaps feeling as though we have spoilt ourselves?

We throw away old things, pack away our party clothes and suddenly become masochistic, clean eating, misery machines.

Really though? What is there to feel guilty about? Why can't we sit and assess the last year and learn from it. Let's not be sucked into spending more money on new clothes, new diets and new things when the 'old' might have just been worn in enough to be a great fit, like a pair of perfectly faded jeans.

The things we do at the end of the year, are often exactly what we should be doing all year round- those moments of Ubiety when we feel just right!

1. Spending more time with your family and loved ones

2. Being creative with our surroundings and the things we eat

3. Using our clothes as a canvas and being a bit more 'sparkly'

4. Snuggling up close to warm people and fireplaces, appreciating the cosiness of home on dark nights

5. Wishing strangers season's greetings

6. Bringing plants inside the home!

7. Feeling charitable and thinking about others less fortunate than us

8. Being thoughtful about our loved ones and what they love

9. Celebrating our successes

10. Going on brisk walks after long lunches!

Perhaps if we didn't make the above a 'special occasion’ and instead combined it with our daily self-care we would find that we are already much closer to being our 'better' selves- without the pressure to be shiny and new!

So, make sure that when you found your Ubiety moments last year, that you don't risk losing them in the quest for the new!