Are New Year’s Resolutions Harming Your Health?

New Year’s resolutions date back 4,000 years to the ancient Babylonians who were first documented to hold celebrations in honor of the new year, which happened mid-March, when the first crops went in the ground. Part of the ritual involved making promises to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed. If the Babylonians kept their word, the (pagan) gods would bestow favor on them. If they failed to keep their word, they would fall out of favor with the gods, a place no one wanted to be. Thanks or perhaps, no thanks to the Babylonians, this ritual has since evolved into the act of setting New Year’s resolutions that we know today.

Read on to learn more about how and why we set intentions and learn about alternatives to common intention setting.