From the thickness of your hair to your morning mood, your hormones have a huge impact on your daily life. If you’ve been feeling moody, ill, or just generally “off,” your hormones could be the culprit. Hormones are produced by several glands within our endocrine system, like the hypothalamus, pancreas, and pituitary. Each gland, which can be found throughout your body, produces a unique hormone which regulates a different aspect of our bodily functions.

If you’ve ever realized that a chronic, unpleasant feeling in your life is emptiness, you’re not alone. With the advent of globalization and open borders comes freedom, and people are moving around more than ever before. Trips across the ocean are cheaper than they’ve ever been, jobs regularly move to new cities, and families that used to live within a single block are now spread around the globe. On an individual level, it’s now easier than ever to ignore our feelings, and distract ourselves with a potent cocktail that includes but isn’t limited to work, social media, food, alcohol and drugs, and shopping.

Research has shown that people tend to keep resolutions when they’re SMART, an acronym made up by the time management gurus at FranklinCovey that stands for specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound. Resolutions fail when they’re too vague or based on other people’s perceptions and ideas rather than your own. This year make positive resolutions that you’ll actually achieve. Here are some ideas for unconventional but awesome New Year’s resolutions.

If you’re living or working in a stressful environment, chances are it isn’t just that aspect of your life that’s suffering from the strain. If we’re caught up in an ongoing stressful situation, there isn’t much of our life that remains untouched by the anxiety, anger, worry, and frustration that comes from dealing with these problems on an ongoing basis. If you’re struggling with how to deal with your emotions in these stressful situations, the best thing that you can do for yourself is come up with some coping strategies.

Meditation is a great habit to pick up. Even if you do it for a few minutes a day, you’ll soon start seeing tangible benefits in your everyday life. If you’re looking for a good reason to start meditating right now, we’ve laid out a few benefits that it can bring to your life, as well as a few suggestions on how to start today.

At its core, low self esteem is a biased viewpoint that we hold against ourselves. It’s a little voice that tells us we are not as good as the people around us. There are a few ways that you can combat low self esteem in your daily life. Take a look at this list, and see if you can incorporate some of these helpful strategies into your everyday routine.