December 2020 Newsletter
The last month of the year! Some of you might say, good riddance, 2020 was a tough year. And it was for a lot of people. People working the front line, people who got sick, people who buried their loved ones, from Covid or other, people who had to close their hard earned-dream of a shop for good or other business, people who were lonely and not being allowed to see their family and friends. Let’s hope 2021 will bring more hope, more positive energy, more feeling of safety, more joy.
But 2020 was also a year of realising that work is not everything. At the end of April, while I was queuing, I overheard a gentleman say that he had realised after a month of being in total lockdown from the month of March, how much his family became much more important to his eyes, all of a sudden, than his 15-hour a day spent at work. He acknowledged his pure joy at being at home with his wife and children. His focus was solely on them, with them and for them. And he realised that his life was sadly missing the connection with his family, which he rekindled after a few weeks spent with them. He sounded exhilarated, happy. He said to his friend, never again will I work 15 hours a day, I am going to delegate.
If anything, 2020 taught us to slow down and to stop taking things for granted, to appreciate the small things, the small pleasures, and that back to basics was not necessarily a bad thing. And the silence! Who can remember the silence, stemming from the absence of cars on the road and planes in the sky. And the animals claiming back their territory little by little, in every country in the world; social media was inundated with gorgeous stunning pictures of animals appearing everywhere in our deserted cities.
We can see 2020 as a gift, if we want to see the positive side of life, as moaning about it won’t change anything. Moaning and whingeing and feeling sorry for ourselves will attract more situations for which we will have more things to feel sorry about. We can’t change what happened, we can only change our attitude about it. It is up to us to change our thinking pattern, to adapt, to move forward, to live each day like it was our last, show compassion to people, see their point of view, put ourselves in their shoes, stop judging and above all, be kind.
Not everybody is able to see past the fear distilled by the media, and you can’t force your opinion on people, so just listen to them and if you strongly disagree, walk away, they’re not your kind of people, and that’s OK. Everyone is entitled to their opinion and it might not be yours, and once again, it’s OK, just walk away. What you can benefit from 2020 is an awareness of a more simple life, unencumbered by too much materialism, making more room for the spiritual side of yourself, maybe making time for meditating, rekindle a closer relationship with yourself, and also with your family and friends, maybe watching less television and preferring reading a book instead or going for a walk.
Above all, realise what really matters to you and make it your goal to make things happen in the way that serves your highest good. Listen to your gut feeling and go in the direction of your dreams, objectives and desires. Nothing is impossible and everything is possible.