If you spent the last weeks of 2013 gorging on leftover noche buena and watching reruns of New Girl on TV, here’s your chance to make up for it. Put the remote control away, and make the transition from year end to new year a whole lot more meaningful. Take a look at these suggestions:
1. Finally join that fun run.
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Just because it’s been nearly a year since you told yourself you’d join that 10-K run doesn’t mean all hope is lost. Check to see if you can still register for the last few races to be held in and out of Manila. Can’t find a run that fits your schedule? Organize one with your friends or run on your own instead. You don’t need a singlet or a bib to prove to yourself that you can do it.
2. Make up with your friend.
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Christmas is all about joy, love, and peace—none of which you can really get if you’re still angry at your friend for one reason or another. Learn to let bygones be bygones and close the year with an overdue hug. At the end of the day, it doesn’t really matter how the feud started but how it ended.
3. Make your move.
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Speaking of love, maybe it’s about time you let that special someone in your life know—even if anonymously—just how special he is (if he doesn’t already). Send him a message or borrow a trick from Christmas movie favorite Love Actually and hold up cue cards that read: “With any luck, by next year, I’ll be going out with these guys (photo of hot shirtless men). But for now let me say, without hope or agenda, just because it’s Christmas (and at Christmas you tell the truth). To me, you are perfect. And my wasted heart will love you. Until you look like this (photo of dried-up corpse). Merry Christmas.”
4. Pay it forward.
You can donate to charity or drop a check at a not-for-profit organization, but you can also pass your blessings on in an instant by doing good in your neighborhood. Treat those street kids to a real noche buena, give your old but still usable shoes to the homeless woman in the corner, or give ate and kuya a day off, plus double the bonus.
5. Spend time in prayer.
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You may not be religious, but your thoughts and intentions have power all the same. Just before 2014 comes to a close, find a quiet corner in your house and send out a wish for a better year, not just for yourself, but for the rest of humanity. It’s not going to end hunger or poverty—it might not even get you that promotion you’ve always wanted–but this small act is a great way to carry you over to the new year with a renewed sense of hope.
(Photo by SplitShire via Pixabay)
