The Yalda, Christmas and New Year festivities are over and we are already into the first week of a brand-new year 2025. Astrologers and numerologists have made their forecasts, but for most of us, stars may impel but they don’t compel. We have the choice to view most life situations as either a boon or a bane. When life throws challenges one can choose to become bitter or better. Often calamities have proved to be game changing opportunities for those with optimistic attitude.

New year is often seen as an opportunity to make resolutions and bring about positive change. But resolution or no resolution, time keeps moving and we need to keep moving along with it. As the Greek philosopher, Heraclitus, said: “Change is the only constant.”

Changing our wall or desk calendar from 2024 to 2025 will not magically make problems or challenges disappear. Adversity never goes away, but most adverse situations do have an end. Most of the individual storms of life that we face will end too. We may lose a loved one. We may lose a job. We may lose wealth or our health. But, one thing we cannot afford to lose is hope – for a better tomorrow! Hence, we need to do the things that light fires of joy or enthusiasm in our hearts despite the gloom that may surround us. The Pandemic taught us that life doesn’t wait for anyone, so why waste our precious time and other resources doing things we don’t feel passionate about?

It’s interesting how New Year is ushered across the globe… In Denmark, it’s customary to shatter unused dishes and plates, and climb on top of chairs and literally ‘jump into New Year’ at midnight, symbolizing breaking bad habits or old spells of misfortune and jumping into a brand-new year with joy and enthusiasm. In Estonia, people eat seven, nine, or twelve (all three considered lucky numbers) meals a day with the goal of having abundance through the next 365 days. In Ireland, people throw bread at walls to chase away evil spirits, followed by a special dinner in memory of a dearly deceased, leaving the door unlatched and even setting an empty place at the table for them. In South Africa, it’s ‘out with the old and in with the new’ and it used to be customary to throw old furniture out the window and into the street!

Clearly, the symbolic message behind these traditions is to ‘throw out old baggage’ and usher new and good luck! It is a natural component of human development to carry personal perceptions of past experiences or emotional baggage or unresolved emotional issues, traumas and stresses that occupy our mind and body. The key to healthier functionality lies in learning to manage our perceptions and strengthen ourselves as we mature or evolve in order to respond to our daily experience in healthier and happier ways.

Focus On Happiness

The Oxford English Dictionary defines happiness or being happy as a feeling or showing contentment or pleasure. But first we need to find out what really makes us happy? Fortunately, happiness can be found in simple joys of life. Scientific evidence suggests that being happy promotes good health, helps combat stress, boosts our immune system, protects our heart and reduces aches and pain. It even increases our life expectancy.

Indeed, happiness is the most important experience we want for all those that we love, including ourselves. While there are many components to a meaningful life, most discover that happiness is about being content or feeling fulfilled. We tend to think that ‘success makes us happy’. However, it’s quite the reverse – being happy makes us more successful in all of life’s endeavors.

Another critical aspect of life is fostering old and new relationships. Relationships have been proven to be the most important factor for the continuation of the human species. Happy relationships make people happier! It’s proven that happy people tend to be less violent. When we read about a warlord, a killer or a rapist, it’s almost always the case that the individual was unhappy. Most happy people strive to promote love and not war.

In the Zoroastrian religion too, the emphasis is on Ushta or Happiness and happiness stems from leading a positive, productive and purposeful life. Furthermore, making others happy can make us even more happy.

The Time Is Now

They say, the time to be happy is now or never! We all need to take that leap of faith and not waste time or one’s life waiting for the right time. If you are unhappy with your job or profession, the time to change is now. Life is short. If your dream is to learn ball-room dancing, the time to learn it is now and not when your knees start to buckle. If your dream is to swim or to climb a mountain, just do it now. If you love someone, say it now. If you disapprove someone’s bad behavior, say it now.  Carry no regrets or resentments to your final destination. One of the great joys of life is to learn new skills, new languages, new recipes, new crafts, new sports and new cultures.

Four Suggested Resolutions Or Changes For Year 2025

It said that the first step towards getting somewhere is to decide that we are not going to stay where we are. Hence, in this new year 2025 we could all consider adopting the following:

Feel Good About Yourself: Trust your ability, your intellect and your inner strength to help you deal with the circumstances of 2025. Changing how you feel about yourself is the first step to making yourself the person you always wanted to be. The answers to all your problems generally lie within, and you need to know and believe that you are smart enough to figure out the way forward. Trust yourself.

Learn To Ignore Negative Thoughts And Negative People: They are toxic to your wellbeing. Pluck them right out. Be kind to yourself. Keep looking and going forward. Setbacks are part of life. Learn to weather life’s storms with faith and fortitude. Accept that both failure and disappointment are integral, crucial parts of life. Challenges of life should make us better and not bitter.

Deal With Your Fears: Overcoming fear makes you stronger than you’ve ever been. Face your fear head on. We need to ask ourselves whether we want to sail through the year 2025 with fear or with fortitude? Are we going to rue and resign ourselves to accepting whatever happens to us or are we going standup and find solutions? Are we going to let circumstances change us or are we going to change our circumstances?

Take Care Of Yourself First: It’s good to be caring. But care for your own self before anything or anyone else. During times of crisis, family or friends may look to you for answers, guidance and support. But you will be able to provide quality guidance or support only if you are physically, mentally and emotionally able to do so. We are not super human, we all need our quota of rest, recreation and repast. Unless refueled, your flight each day will not take off and now that we all have boarded the flight into 2025, remember the instruction you hear and read on every flight: “Should an emergency situation occur, you need to put your own oxygen mask on first, before attempting to help those around you.”

Wish you all a Happy New Year 2025!