There is something about the new year approaching that wipes out reality. We are mentally projected into the the new year and thoughts from that imagined future infiltrate our minds: both good and bad.

Expectations, I’ve concluded, are like ‘brain weeds’: they implant themselves in our minds and take over the way we approach - and eventually experience - something.

Natasha Azzopardi Muscat worked hard to get to where she is today - the Director Country Health Policies and Systems at the WHO Regional Office for Europe. She shares her feel-good formula and talks about the choices she made and what motivates her.

This Christmas I am trying to tell myself to simmer it down - to what really matters. I’m trying to get rid of the fancy ingredients that stress me out during the holidays and focus on what really matters: being present.

Dependency. Such an uncomfortable word to this generation. In our parents’ generation, this was the norm. But this generation is one that was nurtured to study and build a career which meant getting a full-time job and salary.

Grief is not a nice emotion. It hurts. It’s painful seeing loved ones suffer. But we can’t protect them from it. We can, however, be there and try to find our courage together.

This week I’m choosing to be kind to myself. I’m choosing to ease off the pressure. I’m choosing to allow myself to sit down when I feel tired and slow down when I feel overwhelmed.

I have been haunted by the urge to dance. I want to learn to dance. I don’t want to become a dancing star. I don’t want to take part in concerts. I want to have fun. I want to feel the music. I want to let go.

For the past decade, creative entrepreneur Lorinda Mamo has been sharing her life journey with readers to offer inspiration and support. She shares her feel-good formula.

We are all familiar with that experiment in which a Mentos is dropped into a bottle of cola - and the bottle rockets. If we imagine our body as the bottle and our hormones as the Mentos – then the chemical reaction can be explosive, emotionally speaking.