Sarah Harte: Feeling more content in 2026 can start with looking beyond yourself

As another year turns, maybe abandoning punishing resolutions and practising gratitude offers a more humane path to contentment

Is it possible that the tenets of Western thought, which encourage us to view ourselves in highly individualistic terms, often in a win-lose mentality, hamper our ability to look beyond ourselves and feel content?

Congratulations. If you’re reading this, you made it through Christmas. It’s over for another 359 days. Except now we’re facing the gauntlet of the new year and the pressure to wind our necks in. New Year’s Eve is the last hurrah before gluttons look in the mirror and say, “Enough.”

Of course, ascetics judge those of us who subscribe to the Wildean idea that the only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. Presumably, some of them get an arid kick from watching us being dragged kicking and screaming away from fun.