New Year's Resolutions!?

Right after I got connected to the Net, a news headline on the Yahoo homepage caught my eye:

  英心理衛生機構：新年新希望可能有害身心 

I was surprised by it.  In fact, I mentioned New Year's resolutions to my classes the other day when teaching the word "resolve."  I suggested that my students be specific when making New Year's resolutions.  For example, instead of "improving my English in the new year," a resolution like "memorizing 5 (or 10) English new words every day" or "listening to Studio Classroom" is more specific.  So you can imagine how surprised I was when seeing this headline.

The following are the news story on the Yahoo homepage, which is in Chinese, and the original one I found online, which is in English:

http://tw.news.yahoo.com/article/url/d/a/090101/19/1cayl.html

http://healthnewsdailyindia.blogspot.com/2009/01/new-year-resolutions-are-for-health.html

In case you cannot get linked, please read on. 

更新日期:2009/01/01 15:20 楊一峰

 

（法新社倫敦1日電）英國心理衛生慈善團體「麥德」（Mind）今天警告，想改善自我的新年新希望往往讓人感到更糟。

麥德敦促人們不要做類似專注於改善身體不完美的願望，類似的願望如減肥，因為他們會讓人對自己產生負面的情緒，引導人感覺不自我尊重，無望，甚至會達輕微的憂鬱症。

這個慈善團體說，當這類的希望未能達成時，可能引發不足或是失敗的感覺。

麥德的執行長法默（Paul Farmer）說：「新年新希望有時會注重於所面臨的困難或是不安全感，例如過胖，對我們的工作感到不滿，整年未能對朋友或家人付出足夠的時間等。」

他說：「我們懲罰自我，因為我們察覺到自我的缺陷，然後設定不實際的目標，希望改變我們的行為模式，所以結果也不令人意外，當我們無法達成我們的期待時，我們比剛開始時的感覺更糟。」

他說：「在2009年之初，在做新年新希望時，要正面積極地想這一年，有什麼可以達成的。」

麥德建議訂定新希望的人專注於一些活動性的事物，例如多親近大自然，學一些新東西，為自己的社區做一些事。

Thursday, January 1, 2009

New Year resolutions are 'bad for health', says charity

London, Jan 1 (ANI): Experts have claimed what many people would love to hear -New Year's resolutions are meant to be broken. According to a mental health charity, making self-improvement vows can often leave people feel worse.

The charity Mind said that resolutions which focus on physical imperfections - such as bids to lose weight - create a negative self image and lead to feelings of hopelessness, low self-esteem and even mild depression, reports the Telegraph.

And when those optimistic resolutions fail that could trigger feelings of failure and inadequacy, the charity said.

Mind chief executive Paul Farmer said: New Year's resolutions can sometimes focus on our problems or insecurities such as being overweight, feeling unhappy in our jobs or feeling guilty about not devoting enough time to friends and family throughout the year.

We chastise ourselves for our perceived shortcomings and set unrealistic goals to change our behaviour, so it's not surprising that when we fail to keep resolutions, we end up feeling worse than when we started.

In 2009, instead of making a New Year's resolution, think positively about the year to come and what you can achieve. (ANI)

Posted by Indian Daily News at 2:01 AM