We are rapidly drawing the close of another year. Normally at this time I recommend reflecting on the year just gone but seriously – who wants to!
There have been so many things that have been less than amazing to say the least.
However, in amongst all of the crap, I’m betting you can find some things to make you smile and things to warm your heart.
I don’t know what it was like on the Gold Coast during the fires but here there was an incredible sense of community. People were offering homes for people affected by the fires to stay in, they donated a bucketload of money to the local fire brigade who were out there helping – enough to buy them all respirators, people were putting together food and clothing packages for those who had lost everything.
Lockdown for Covid was obviously a difficult time for most people but it also helped us recognise what was important. Initially at least, we made more contact with friends and loved ones electronically when we couldn’t see them in person. The community pulled together and did shopping trips for the elderly and those at greater risk.
And if you want something to giggle about – think about the homes (even if it’s yours) that still has a tower of toilet paper. There is always humour to be found somewhere in a crisis.
No matter what is happening there are always some good points to focus on. I’m not talking ‘everything’s rainbows and butterflies’ when there is obviously a shit-storm going on around you. But it’s good to temper the terrible with some good.
Our brains are made to focus on the threatening, dangerous and terrible. We wouldn’t have survived if we didn’t. And have we had a lot of threatening, dangerous and terrible this past year!
We can consciously override the threatening, dangerous, terrible focus and look for the hopeful, heartwarming and meaningful.
Even if you’re in your worst place ever, see if you can find just one thing to feel hopeful about. One thing that’s heartwarming. One thing that’s meaningful.
If you think that’s impossible then take a look at Viktor Frankl. He found meaning even while being imprisoned in concentration camps in Nazi Germany.
Viktor Frankl said “everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances”
So as you think about the year gone by and the upcoming year that is still so full of uncertainty, think about the attitude you would like to take into it.
