Mental Well-Being

Mental Well-Being How to Make (& Keep) a New Year’s Resolution

Making a New Year's resolution is a tradition most common in the Western World, but also found in the Eastern World, in which a person resolves to continue good practices, change an undesired trait or behaviour, accomplish a personal goal, or otherwise improve their life at the start of a new year. Are you going to make a resolution in the New Year? More than half of all resolutions fail, but this year, yours does not have to be one of them. Here is how to identify the right resolution to improve your life, create a plan on how to reach it, and become part of the group of people that achieve their goal.

By Chara Markatzinou

Pick the Right Resolution You will give yourself your best shot at success if you set a goal that’s doable — and meaningful, too. It is believed that one third of resolutions don’t even make it past the end of January! A lot of these resolutions fail because they’re not the right ones. A resolution may be wrong for one of three main reasons: It’s a resolution created based on what someone else (or society) is telling you to change. It’s too vague. You don’t have a realistic plan for achieving your resolution.

Your goals should be smart — and SMART.

• Specific Your resolution should be absolutely clear. “Making a concrete goal is really important rather than just vaguely saying ‘I want to lose weight’.’’ Such a statement is unlikely to lead to success. You need to have a specific goal. You should state how much weight you want to lose over a specified time. This is going to be much more effective.

• Measurable This may seem obvious if your goal concerns fitness or weight loss, but it’s also important if you’re trying to alter behaviour, too.

If, for example, you want to stop biting your nails, take pictures of your nails over time so that you can track your progress. Logging progress in a journal or making notes on your phone or in an app designed to help you track behaviours can highlight your progress, no matter what your resolution may be. • Attainable This doesn’t mean that you can’t have big stretch goals. However, trying to take too big a step too fast can leave you frustrated, or affect other areas of your life to the point that your resolution takes over your life, affecting not only you, but also your friends and your family.

For instance, resolving to save enough money to retire in five years when you’re 30 years old is probably not realistic, but saving an extra $100 a month may be. • Relevant Is this a goal that really matters to you, and are you making it for the right reasons? If you do it out of the sense of self-hate or remorse or a strong passion in that moment, it doesn’t usually last long. However, if you build up a process where you’re thinking harder about what’s good for you, you’re changing the structure of your life, and you’re bringing people into your life who will reinforce that resolution.

• Time-bound Like “attainable”, the timeline you set to reach your goal should be realistic, too.

That means giving yourself enough time to do it with lots of smaller intermediate goals set up along the way. Focus on these small wins so you can make gradual progress.

New Year’s resolution ideas can be simple and positive, such as paying it forward, engaging in self-care, practising daily gratitude, and decluttering. They needn't necessarily be activitybased; goals can range from those that inspire happiness to the professional, highly personal, and everything in between.

Practice Gratitude All successful people practice gratitude to feel healthier, happier, and more at peace with themselves—and they do so daily. Fostering gratitude means writing down a few things you're thankful for and why. You could also begin your days by vocalizing what you’re grateful for or meditate on your gratitude in silence. Cultivating this habit in the New Year can even help you sleep better and be kinder to others. Spread Kindness There's actually scientific evidence that being kind makes you feel calmer, healthier, and happier—and it's also contagious. Make the world a better place by resolving to do one kind thing or more for a stranger every day or month. Random acts of kindness can include buying coffee for the person waiting in line behind you or paying someone a nice compliment. To help make it a daily practice, download a free Kindness Calendar from RandomActsofKindness.org, a nonprofit that invests its resources into making kindness the norm in schools, workplaces, and beyond. Accept Change In life, change is one of the only certainties. Learning to accept it can be difficult, especially if you're change-averse. Remember that change is what allows us to grow and become more comfortable with being uncomfortable. Make a resolution to embrace the unknown, and think more positively about any changes that occur. Treat Yourself Kindly Mistakes and bad days are both inevitable. If you find you're apt to browbeat rather than show yourself kindness, spend the next year working to reverse this negative habit as it only breeds anxiety and depression. Mindfulness, regular exercise, healthy eating, and ample sleep all help to foster self-compassion. Dream Bigger Reflect on your current dreams and aspirations and ask yourself if they're truly as big as they can possibly be. Create your next positive life phase by training yourself to think beyond what you imagine you can achieve. Cast doubt aside, concentrate only on what you love and that which makes you most fulfilled, and open yourself up to new possibilities in the coming year. Cultivate Compassion We never really know what is going on in someone else's life. Before you get mad at a friend for cancelling plans or mutter under your breath when a stranger does something to annoy you, teach yourself to pause and summon some compassion before huffing and puffing—and remember that it's probably not about you! Channel Your Inner Child Playfulness is grossly underrated. This is especially true if you have a particularly draining day job, so resolve to make time for play. Adults who play games better maintain their social wellbeing, hone their cognitive functions, and even keep platonic relationships and romantic partnerships healthier than those who don't regularly engage in fun activities. Develop an Abundance Mindset All too often life becomes a race to the finish. Why put yourself under so much pressure? Vow to switch your current state of visualizing only scarcity in your life to one of recognizing abundance in it.

Practice Patience Patience is a virtue, but patience can be notoriously difficult to foster and maintain. However, overcoming this difficulty is beneficial as science tells us that waiting for things only makes us happier.Take the next year to learn how to be patient with yourself and others. For starters, work to identify your triggers, know why they make you impatient, and practise some deep breathing so that you do not get irritated. Love Yourself Unconditionally Loving yourself just as you are, without restrictions (and not for who you will become one day) is challenging for most people. Resolve to love yourself this year and beyond by practising selfcare, healing old wounds, exiting toxic relationships, forgiving yourself for mistakes and indiscretions (perceived or otherwise), and accepting yourself in the here and now.

Sources https://www.mydomaine.com/best-new-years-resolution-ideas https://www.nytimes.com/guides/smarterliving/resolution-ideas

Environmental The Nature-Based Solution

Introduction The Convention on Climate Change in Glasgow, also referred to as COP26, received a wide variety of reactions, especially with regard to issues regarding fossil fuel production and usage. Unsurprisingly, these issues together with those relating to the development of sustainable energy sources attracted most of the attention of the mainstream press. While these issues are arguably the most important, there is also another approach to combating the effects of climate change which is deserving of greater attention. The approach in question involves nature being given the chance to function as a mechanism to offset carbon production and afford protection against the catastrophic effects of climate change. More specifically, restoring and maintaining the health of our oceans and our coastal ecosystems could deliver substantial benefits such as providing food, absorbing carbon and reducing the risk of coastal flood damage. Indeed, the absorption of carbon by such coastal ecosystems like mangroves, saltmarshes and seagrass meadows is so efficient that these landscapes account for 50% of the carbon absorbed by ocean habitats and yet do not cover even 2% of the total area of ocean. What is more, a study conducted in Scotland determined that the stores of carbon in the marine environment, known as ‘blue carbon’, in that country are nearly 20 times greater than those present in Scottish forests. Fortunately, there are organisations that have recognized the ocean’s role in maintaining the health of the planet and have acted accordingly. Four such conservation organisations that are at the forefront of the battle to restore and maintain the health of the ocean and coastal areas, which share a great deal of interdependence, are Blue Ventures, Friends of Ocean Action, Mission Blue and the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds. Blue Ventures Founded in London by Tom Savage in 2003, Blue Ventures works in close collaboration with locals in areas that depend on fishing for their livelihoods. Central to the organisation’s work is the belief that the health of the oceans depends on supporting coastal communities in their efforts to rebuild fisheries and restore ocean life. This support comes in many forms, including mangrove restoration and conservation, an action the international conservation NGO began in Madagascar in 2011. Mangroves offer many benefits from absorbing greenhouse gases to functioning as a nursery for fish that would otherwise be exposed to ocean predators. Moreover, for those people in coastal communities on the front line of climate change who number hundreds of millions in the tropics, mangroves serve to improve resilience by mitigating the risk of severe coastal flooding. Blue Ventures now assists almost 700,000 fishers in 14 countries by providing whatever they require to manage and protect their seas for their immediate needs and for the benefit of the natural world. This has allowed some of the poorest and most vulnerable people on our planet to protect over 16,000 km2 (6177 sq. miles) of ocean, which is clearly a win-win situation for coastal communities and ultimately the planet itself.

Mangroves, where roots offer young fish protection and people other benefits. Source: climate.nasa.gov

Friends of the Ocean Action

Friends of the Ocean Action is an informal group of around seventy individuals whose mission is to use their knowledge, means and influence to take the urgent steps necessary to ensure that our oceans are conserved and remain available for sustainable development. The tools with which they are to succeed in their mission is reflected in the members of the group, which includes co-chairs Isabella Lövin (Former Deputy PM of Sweden) and Peter Thomson (UN Secretary General’s Special Envoy for the Ocean), along with H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco, Bill Hilf (CEO and Chairman, Vulcan Inc. USA), Su Jilan (Professor of Oceanography, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China), Elizabeth Maruma Mrema (Executive Secretary, Convention of Biological Diversity, Tanzania) and Kosi Latu (Director-General, Secretarial of the Pacific Regional Environment Programme (SREP), Samoa). Friends of the Ocean Action is supported by funding from the Benioff Ocean Institute, the Government of Canada and Sweden as well as Vulcan. Like Blue Ventures, this organization has acted upon its recognition of the importance of developing mangrove ecosystems by establishing its Mangrove Working Group in partnership with 15otg. In a nutshell, this is a community-based ecological mangrove restoration project in which local stakeholders are trained to ‘mitigate mangrove stressors and to facilitate mangrove restoration’ through the enhancement of the blue carbon market with the assistance of non-profit lenders and experts. Again, this strategy promotes

both the health of the oceans and humans, thereby benefitting coastal communities, the marine environment and ultimately society itself.

Mission Blue Led by Sylvia Earle, an American marine biologist, oceanographer and member of Friends of the Ocean Action, Mission Blue has designated over 130 marine areas as ‘Hope Spots’. These areas, which extend from northern locations like Gotland in the Baltic Sea and the Jæren Coast in Norway to southern areas such as the New Zealand Coastal Waters and the East Antarctica Penninsula, have been identified largely through scientific means as being critical to the health of the ocean. Local conservationists who have already begun to take action to protect an area receive Mission Blue’s support in the form of expeditions, scientific advice and close contact with those environmentalists on the front line. Areas are designated Hope Spots if they satisfy at least one of a list of criteria. Thus, a Hope Spot may be an area diverse in nature, contain rare or threatened species, be sites of major migration corridors or spawning grounds, be areas of specific economic importance to the coastal community, or be characterized as having major historical, cultural or spiritual value. By offering help to committed environmental champions, which includes assisting in reversing any damage done to designated areas, Mission Blue moves closer to its aim of saving and restoring the ocean.

Jæren Coast Hope Spot. Source: www.mission-blue.org

The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds At a primarily national level, the RSPB has made it a priority to develop, restore and protect coastal areas in the UK to benefit both people and wildlife. For instance, in Wallasea Island, the RSPB has created an intertidal habitat of mudflats and saltmarsh that provide a much needed habitat for waterbirds, offer nursery areas for fish like sea bass, sequester carbon and reduce the pressure on sea walls during storms that have become more intense in recent years. Other projects in the Solway Estuary, the Milford Haven Waterway, Loch Craignish, which is part of the Argyll Coast and Islands Hope Spot, and Nigg Bay have resulted in the creation of areas abundant in saltmarsh, seagrass meadows and mudflats.

Saltmarsh at Wallasea Island. Courtesy of: www.rspb.org.uk

Overview Scientific studies have shown that carbon dioxide levels fluctuated well before the appearance of humans on the planet. This time, however, with humankind in the equation for the first time, CO2 levels are rising at an alarming rate due to industrial activity, the loss of coastal habitat that sequesters the greenhouse gas and damage to the ocean whose health has been negatively impacted by our actions. The four aforementioned organizations are striving to restore the health of our oceans in the knowledge that they have an astounding regenerative potential. The work of these conservation organizations, others with similar agendas and projects like Pristine Seas, is vital given that our oceans and coastal areas can absorb CO2, provide habitats for young fish on which so many coastal communities depend and afford protection against rising sea levels so that the number of climate change refugees is lowered. Of course, we still do not know what many of the tipping points are with regard to climate change. Nor do we fully understand the effects climate change are having on the natural world, which makes our observation of them a continual learning process. What we do know, though, is that carbon neutral targets are decades away. We also know that the aims of restoring, regenerating and protecting our oceans and coastal areas can be achieved in a shorter time frame, and that engaging in proactive strategies to accomplish these aims will allow nature to lead the immediate fight against the negative consequences of greenhouse gas emissions and climate change.

Sources: www.mission-blue.org, www.blueventures.org, weforum.org/friends-of-the-ocean-action, Nature’s Home, RSPB Magazine, Autumn/Winter 2021 pg 40-43

Culture Corner

The Phinisi

As the Republic of Indonesia consists of some 17,000 equatorial islands, it comes as no surprise that boat building has a long history in this Asian nation. Indeed, the accomplished seafarers in region date back 3000 years, when they sailed as far as North Australia to trade with indigenous populations that inhabited coastal areas there. As regards the oldest pictorial evidence of an Indonesian ship, this comes in the form of a stone carving in central Java that was made in the 8th century. In more recent times, namely in the first decade of the 20th century, the Bugis and Makassar peoples with a strong seafaring culture in South Sulawesi began building a new type of craft called the phinisi. The first such vessel is thought to have been built in 1906, and was constructed to compete with speedy ships from Portugal, Holland and Britain that arrived in Indonesian waters at the beginning of the 20th century. Described as a cross between a perahu, a sailing craft with a centuries old tradition, and a western sailing rig, the phinisi has two masts and seven sails. Another characteristic feature is a long slender prow that reaches upwards, making the phinisi a truly beautiful craft. Since the construction of the first phinisi, a maritime icon of South Sulawesi and the Indonesian seas, little has changed with regard to basic building methods. As with all boat building that utilizes timber as the primary construction material, the saying “good wood, good boat” is at the heart of phinisi building. The wood of choice for the hull is ironwood, whose properties of hardness and resistance to fungus, termites and other woodeating insects ensure a long service life. Bangkirai wood is considered ideal for planking and the upper structure, while teak and sappanwood are also regarded as suitable for the superstructure. Construction of a phinisi takes place on the beach as it always has. Once the timber has been secured for a vessel of a specific size, it is up to the master boatbuilder with his unique skills to earmark each block for a specific part of the vessel as he visualizes its construction. The first step in the building process is laying the keel timber. Then the hull timber and planks are set in place. The assembly of the timber structure is achieved by using wooden pegs to join the pieces. Plank after plank is added to form and shape the boat. Once the planking has been completed, frames are fitted into the hull shell and pegged to the planks, to the keel and to each other where the frame segments join. The plank edges are fastened using wooden dowels. Lastly, the internal structures are added followed by the decks and superstructure. One recent change in the aforementioned building process is the use of iron drifts and steel bolts, but these have not replaced the wooden dowels altogether. Another change involves the use of power tools alongside traditional tools. One thing that has not changed at all, though, is the caulking process. The deck planks are calked with fine fluff from one type of palm tree and coarser fibres from another. These are worked into the seams with a mallet before sealing takes place with a locally sourced resin-like substance. Phinisi range in size from small fishing boats to 50-metre, 700-ton vessels. As for building times, a 28-metre boat with a 7-metre beam, it takes around 7 months for 5 workers to complete the hull, and a further year of building prior to launch. Although the art of boatbuilding in South Sulawesi has served to strengthen social bonds and community relations, a number of issues have surfaced that threaten the future of the phinisi. The most serious one concerns the loss of interest by the younger generation to continue the tradition, which could witness the craft fading into obscurity. Another issue relates to reservations about the sustainability of gathering timber from areas such as Southeast Sulawesi, Malaku and Kalimantan. On the other hand, the phinisi continues to be used for coastal and inter island cargo transport, so there is still demand for this type of craft. In addition, order books have been strengthened as these vessels have recently been adapted for use for diving and slow travel tourism in the more remote eastern islands region. There have also been orders for luxury yachts in the shape of a phinisi decked out with modern comforts and technology. As far as the problems are concerned, a turning point appears to have been reached. In December 2017, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), in the 12th session of its Cultural Heritage Committee, voted to include the art of building the phinisi in South Sulawesi as an addition to the world’s Intangible Cultural Heritage. This gave a boost to the region and may well have rekindled interest in the craft among the local youth. The issue of timber sustainability has also been addressed as boat builders now actively participate in reforestation projects or sponsor them. Moreover, verification that sourced timber has been gathered from sustainable plantations in Sulawesi and Kalamantan comes in the form of an Indonesian Legal Wood label. The phinisi has been described as the embodiment of the boat building tradition in South Sulawesi, and has been recognised as a symbol of the character and culture of people in the region. As such, this maritime legacy must be preserved, which is a view held by local leaders such as the governor of South Sulawesi and the Indonesian authorities. With this unwavering support, there is more than a glimmer of hope for the future of the aesthetically pleasing phinisi.

Phinisi on the water Source: www.yachtsourcing.com

Sources: www.youtube.com, www.tigertiffin.com, www.kastenmarine.com www.pacifichighcruise.com, www.seamuseum.com, www.silverkris.com, www.yachtsourcing.com