 It’s the New Year and a lot of people decide to make New Years’ resolutions to change something, usually for the better, from the previous year.
But do you really need to make a resolution or could it be as simple as looking to change a habit?  If you are feeling stressed about Christmas, get ready to laugh yourself better.
When we went into that first full on lock down in March the idea of being holed up indoors for weeks on end didn’t exactly sound like a bundle of laughs. Yet a recent survey* revealed that laughter is what got 79% of us Brits through. The survey showed that laughter (23%) ranked higher than exercise (19%) and sex! (13%) for its feel-good factor, with 53% getting their laughter fix via funny videos, 38% by virtual calls with family and friends, 22% by listening to the radio and 16% by reading funny books. Now, if humour can bring a spark of joy to lockdown, then surely, we can all do with a dose of laughter over Christmas?  It’s been a difficult year for many reasons for many people and life is far from perfect, but there are lots of reasons for optimism. Setting positive goals for the future gives our lives a sense of direction and purpose. And although we face many challenges there are also lots of reasons to stay hopeful. By consciously choosing our priorities we can overcome issues, make progress and focus on what really matters.
 Feeling good about the future is important for our happiness. We all need goals to motivate us and these need to be challenging enough to excite us, but also achievable. If we try to attempt the impossible this brings unnecessary stress.
Choosing ambitious but realistic goals gives our lives direction and brings a sense of accomplishment and satisfaction when we achieve them.  September is self-care awareness month and once again our good friends at Action for Happiness have provided us with some daily tips. So, what’s it all about.
 Many who are self-isolating during the COVID-19 pandemic have felt pressure to use this time to be productive—learn a new language, clean the house, or bake a loaf of sourdough daily.
 Seeing so many social media posts about projects people are working on can make it feel like if you're not using this time to complete your own masterpiece, you're wasting an opportunity or not doing quarantine “right,”. Do you ever feel like that?
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