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NEW YEAR'S DAY | |
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NEW YEAR resolutions - by DR ROSIE KING How many of us have kept the long list of resolutions we made last New Year's Eve? More than you might think! Research has found that wo out of three people questioned, remained faithful to their No.1 resolution for a least two months. What about you? If you're the type to break your resolutions before breakfast on January 1, you might like some advice on making but not breaking, your New Year commitments.Researchers found that people who had been thinking about changing their behaviour for some time had more success in sticking to their resolutions. So don't make a promise on a whim while partying the night away. You're bound to fall. It's much easier to achieve a resolution where you're actively doing good for yourself (like exercise) than to give up something you know is harmful to you (smoking). Breaking a bd habit is far more difficult than starting a new behaviour. Don't attempt to renovate your life overnight. Too much change all at once is difficult to sustain. Choose one or two goals and focus on them. You have to have a plan of action. Figure out where you've been going wrong and decide how to change it. List the obstacles to your goal (not enough time, little motivation) and come up with strategies for combating anything that might sabotage your intentions. Don't use the odd slip-up as an excuse to abandon the whole idea altogether. Don't expect to feel immediately happier because you've changed your behaviour. Do expect to feel uncomfortable when you do something new or give up something you enjoy. No pain, no gain! There are million ways to pat yourself on the back. If you give up smoking, put the money you save aside for a night out or a holiday. When that goal is achieved, choose another and go for it. Remember you can make resolutions at any time of the year. Research has found tha only 40 per cent of people achieve the top goal on their list of resolutions on the first try. If you fail this time, don't be disheartened. Look to see what accomplishments you can make in the future, not the failures you left behind. Never give up. The more times you try, the more likely you are to succeed. About 17 per cent of people need more than six attempts before they succeed. RELATIONSHIP REMEDIES The New Year is a great time to put more love and lust into your relationship. If you're short of ideas, try some of these. |
Developing a reliable calendar has been a most complicated business. We take it for granted that
there are 12 months in the year, each with so many days that are 24 hours long, and an hour can be
broken down into minutes and seconds. When you think about it, a reliable calendar is an essential thing. For business, trade, government administration, farming and special personal and celebratory days we need to refer to a calendar. In ancient times, some civilisations went to great trouble to build a calendar based on lunar cycles. But as time went by, this would get further and further out of sync with the seasons, solstices, equionoxes and the timing for special religious days, which would cause great concern and discord. However, it is quite remarkable that ancient peoples, without any watches or clocks, could observer the longest and shortest days of the year, or when it was equal day and night all over the earth. After all, the difference between the equinox and the days either side, in terms of daylight, is only minutes! The ancient Egyptians chose a solar year. It was the Ptolemaic dynasty in Egypt, 238BC, that first established a 365.25 day year. And in 46BC Julius Caesar consulted Egyptian philosophers and mathematicians to reform the Roman calendar. Furthermore, Caesar made January 1 the beginning of the year instead of March, because it was closer to the winter solstice. This was not the end of confusion and disorder though and tinkering, debate, dispute and changes followed. It took Pope Gregory XIII in the 16th century to standardise the calendar and mark January 1 as New Year's day. The New Year's Days of other peoples vary considerably by the Gregorian calendar because of differences that arise between their calendars and the solar calendar. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, which commemorates the traditional date for the creation of the world, comes at the beginning of the month Tishri (in September of October). The Chinese New Year, in force until China adopted the Gregorian calendar, occurred between January 21 and February 19. The Muslim New Year falls on the first day of the month of Muharram and commemorates the date of the Hegira (July 16, 622), the starting point of the Muslim calendar. Since the Muslim year is a lunar one consisting of only 354 days, the commencement of the new year fluctuates widely by the Western calendar. Celebrate |