Best New Year’s resolution ever

Jefferson Breland

(1/2024) Bear with me as I attempt to merge four millennia of New Year’s resolutions into one word.

A quick survey of the top New Year’s Resolutions for the year 2023 revealed nothing new (and by a quick survey, I mean, I googled it).

New Year’s resolutions have essentially been the same old, same old for hundreds of years, if not thousands of years.

According to a number of websites, the first written record of some version of a resolution for a new year was recorded in Babylonia about 4,000 years ago. Their new year’s day was in March to correspond to the beginning of planting season.

These older "resolutions" tended to focus on getting in the good graces of the reigning or future king or a god. Generally speaking, these were pledges to be a better citizen and if you didn’t live up to them there were severe consequences with the kings or gods.

This sort of pledge to contribute to society in a more consistent and meaningful way continued for thousands of years right into the 20th century.

Gradually there has been a shift from the pleasing king, God and be a better citizen type of resolution to the more personal, secular self-help variety. It is notable that as early as the end of the 18th century, the practice of making resolutions was being mocked or satirized by various publications. One without too much effort could guess that breaking resolutions is as old as, well, resolutions.

According to the Farmer’s Almanac website, a 1947 Gallup poll listed the following resolutions:

• Improve my disposition, be more understanding, control my temper
• Improve my character, live a better life
• Stop smoking, smoke less
• Save more money
• Stop drinking, drink less
• Be more religious, go to church more often
• Be more efficient and do a better job
• Take better care of my health
• Take a greater part in home life
• Lose (or gain) weight

Forbes magazine cited a Onepoll poll, listing the following popular resolutions for 2023:

• Improve mental health
• Improve fitness
• Lose weight
• Improve diet
• Improve finances
• Make more time for loved ones
• Stop smoking
• Learn a new skill
• Make more time for hobbies
• Improve work-life balance
• Travel more
• Meditate regularly

It is interesting to see that for the last 77 years many of the same desired changes are still present. I guess the "human condition" is still the "human condition"

It is also interesting to see how the resolutions have changed either in fundamental concept or how they are "languaged."

For example, "be more religious and go to church" has shifted into "meditate regularly." While prayer can be considered meditation, I don’t know that a significant percentage of the American population was practicing any Eastern religions in 1947.

I am struck by the idea that "improving my character" is equated to living a better life.

The 2023 list combines the 1947 entries of "to be more efficient and do a better job" and "take a greater part in home life" to create "improve work-life balance."

In 1947, was anyone even allowed to entertain such an idea? Work was the means of taking care of your family. Home "life" was what happened when you weren’t working.

As we know, the role of men was to bring home the "bacon" and married women were "homemakers" who cooked the "bacon" and provided child care.

With the shifting of roles of men and women in the workforce and in home-life, it seems inevitable that a new idea of a balance between work-life and life-life needed to be created. Combine this shift with that of employment patterns where workers can no longer count on lifetime or long-term employment with the same company or pension systems and we may have created a need to reestablish an essential stability in the home.

I am curious about the personal actions of improving my "disposition" (a person's inherent qualities of mind and character), being more understanding (compassionate), and controlling my temper (being more peaceful) as related to our contemporary ideas of mental health and how we improve it.

It was not socially acceptable to openly talk about one’s mental health in the 1940’s. It makes sense to me that the language of the 1940s was rooted in a kind of "pulling oneself up by the bootstraps," "can do" attitude of American rugged individualism.

Smoking still made the list, even though the percentage of smokers in our culture has dropped approximately 50% since the 1940s down to 25 percent of the population.

At the top of this article, I declared a pretty ambitious goal: to merge all resolutions into one word.

The purpose of my goal is to simplify the myriad possible resolutions and find the word that is the gateway to all resolutions and better health.

Too often resolutions require multiple steps which makes it easier to fall off the resolution path or to even start it.

If you look at the 2023 list you can get an idea of how complicated some of these are.

Take "improving fitness," for example. You can walk more. Do you need new shoes? Where are you going to walk? Do you have to drive? You will have to drive if you go to a gym. Do you need new clothes?

Does the resolution involve denying oneself something you find pleasurable?

Want to lose weight? Our culture has made food the enemy at the same time it gives us easy access to foods that are not the best for us (I am thinking fast food here). If you want to improve your diet, that could involve research which sounds a lot like homework, not to mention the shopping, and the lines at check-out.

What if I told you there is one word that can help you feel more positive about yourself and the world around you.

What if I told you there is one word that will help your body feel better and improve your health.

What if I told you there is one word that would improve all your relationships.

I am guessing you would want to know what that word is.

The word is gratitude. Yes, it is this simple.

Some psychologists define gratitude as a trait, a mood, or a feeling. I prefer to think of it simply as a practice, an action. The action of saying, "Thank you."

According to a New York Times article discussing the work of psychologist Dr. Robert A. Emmons, scientific studies have shown a wide range of measurable health benefits. These benefits include the easing symptoms of depression and anxiety, lower blood pressure, healthier heartbeat rhythms, improved self-esteem, and better sleep.

The practice of gratitude by acknowledging co-workers, family, friends, strangers, romantic partners, store clerks (basically anyone in the world) will improve all relationships and lead to an improved outlook on life.

When one focuses on gratitude, one becomes focused on what is good in life. When one focuses on the good, the burdens of life become lighter and more bearable.

As the Christian theologian Meister Eckhart wrote, 'If the only prayer you said was ‘thank you,’ that would be enough.'

Expressing gratitude simply helps to create a better world. Now that is a New Year’s resolution worth making!

If you would like to learn more about bringing transformative practices in your life, give me a call. Thank you for your time. Be well.

Jefferson Breland is a board-certified acupuncturists licensed in Pennsylvania and Maryland with offices in Gettysburg and Towson, respectively.
He can be reached at 410-336-5876.