There is some­thing in­tox­i­cat­ing about the New Year. The cal­en­dars re­set. The clocks strike mid­night. Auld Lang Syne. Church bells peal. Cham­pagne flows. Gym mem­ber­ships spike. Hope hangs in the air like a fresh­ly ironed white coat—crisp, op­ti­mistic and full of promise.

And then… re­al­i­ty ar­rives— usu­al­ly by mid-Jan­u­ary.

Our res­o­lu­tions of­ten re­sem­ble shoot­ing stars—bright, beau­ti­ful and fleet­ing. They blaze across the sky of in­ten­tion but leave be­hind lit­tle more than vague guilt.

But what if this year could be dif­fer­ent? Let us em­brace 2026 with in­ten­tion­al kind­ness—to our bod­ies, our minds and each oth­er.

Reg­u­lar phys­i­cal ac­tiv­i­ty re­mains one of the most pow­er­ful tools we have against chron­ic dis­eases such as obe­si­ty, di­a­betes, hy­per­ten­sion, stroke, heart dis­ease and de­pres­sion. It el­e­vates the heart rate, im­proves cir­cu­la­tion, strength­ens mus­cles and—most im­por­tant­ly—floods the brain with en­dor­phins that el­e­vate mood and sharp­en think­ing.

Take the stairs in­stead of the el­e­va­tor. Do lunges while brush­ing your teeth. Stretch dur­ing tele­vi­sion binge ses­sions. Park a lit­tle far­ther away (I hope your car is safe when you re­turn). Dance bad­ly—but en­thu­si­as­ti­cal­ly—in your liv­ing room.

Con­sis­ten­cy beats in­ten­si­ty every time. This is an in­vi­ta­tion to re­claim the out­doors—not just for fit­ness, but for heal­ing.

Make 2026 the year you re­dis­cov­er Moth­er Na­ture as your gym, your play­ground and your sanc­tu­ary. Na­ture re­minds us that life is big­ger than dead­lines, pol­i­tics and What­sApp no­ti­fi­ca­tions.

New Year’s di­ets of­ten be­gin with en­thu­si­asm and end in re­sent­ment. In­stead of de­clar­ing war on food, try cu­rios­i­ty. Ex­plore the colour­ful world of veg­etable-based cui­sine—not as de­pri­va­tion, but as dis­cov­ery. Hearty sal­ads. Cre­ative veg­gie bowls. Stir-fries burst­ing with colour. Beans, lentils, greens, squash, and root veg­eta­bles that nour­ish the body with fi­bre, vi­t­a­mins, an­tiox­i­dants and joy.

You do not need to swear off roti or pelau for­ev­er to be healthy. Food is fu­el, yes—but it is al­so cul­ture, mem­o­ry and con­nec­tion.

We live in a world that nev­er switch­es off. Screens glow. Bad news scrolls end­less­ly. Our brains are over­stim­u­lat­ed, ex­haust­ed and per­pet­u­al­ly dis­tract­ed. So here is a rad­i­cal med­ical rec­om­men­da­tion for the New Year: un­plug.

Des­ig­nate Sun­days—or at least a por­tion of them—as your sanc­tu­ary of screen-free seren­i­ty. Give your eyes a rest from ar­ti­fi­cial light. Step away from the dig­i­tal noise. En­gage in re­al con­ver­sa­tions. Savour un­fil­tered life. Read a phys­i­cal book. Take a slow walk. Sit with fam­i­ly. Cook with­out film­ing it. Be present with­out post­ing proof.

This week­ly “screen detox” does won­ders for men­tal clar­i­ty, sleep qual­i­ty, emo­tion­al reg­u­la­tion and re­la­tion­ships. A break from the con­stant bar­rage of dig­i­tal in­for­ma­tion re­stores calm and fo­cus.

On Jan­u­ary 1st, try some­thing rev­o­lu­tion­ary: a mind­ful morn­ing.

Start with in­ten­tion, grat­i­tude and still­ness. Cre­ate a rit­u­al that sets a pos­i­tive tone for the hours ahead—five min­utes of stretch­ing, a brief prayer, med­i­ta­tion, jour­nal­ing, or sim­ply sip­ping herbal tea in si­lence.

Jot down what you are thank­ful for. Ac­knowl­edge the gift of wak­ing up. Re­sist the urge to plunge im­me­di­ate­ly in­to the rat race.

As we stand at the por­tal of the New Year, it is im­pos­si­ble not to ad­dress the dark­er side of cel­e­bra­tion.

Fire­works may look fes­tive, but they are dan­ger­ous. Every year, emer­gency de­part­ments man­age trag­ic in­juries—burns, eye trau­ma, am­pu­ta­tions—caused by mis­han­dled fire­crack­ers and scratch bombs. An­i­mals suf­fer. Air qual­i­ty wors­ens. Noise pol­lu­tion es­ca­lates.

Cel­e­bra­tion should nev­er come at the cost of hu­man life or dig­ni­ty. The laws sur­round­ing fire­works ex­ist for a rea­son and must be en­forced rigid­ly.

The New Year of­ten car­ries the weight of re­gret. Un­kept promis­es. Missed op­por­tu­ni­ties. Health goals aban­doned. Words left un­said.

But as Bud­dha wise­ly said, “No mat­ter how hard the past, you can al­ways be­gin again.”

Em­brace ex­per­i­men­ta­tion. In­fuse your goals with joy. Let well­ness un­fold as a jour­ney, not a des­ti­na­tion. Cel­e­brate small vic­to­ries. For­give your­self of­ten.

Sleep more. Laugh loud­ly. Move dai­ly. Eat thought­ful­ly. Dis­con­nect reg­u­lar­ly. Re­con­nect deeply. Above all, be kind—to your­self and oth­ers. If you fall off the res­o­lu­tion wag­on, don’t drama­tise it. Just climb back on. Health is a life­long con­ver­sa­tion. And like all good con­ver­sa­tions, it works best when you ac­tu­al­ly lis­ten.

May this New Year bring health that feels sus­tain­able, hap­pi­ness that feels gen­uine and sur­pris­es that re­mind you why life is worth cel­e­brat­ing.

Hap­py New Year and may God’s bless­ings fol­low you through every step of 2026.