We are three weeks into the year 2020 the start of a new decade. Maybe not much has really changed and the world seems as weary as it was in 2019.
At the beginning of a New Year and especially a new decade most people feel optimistic that the year/decade to come will be better than the one that has just passed even if the optimism only lasts for a short while.
Some people are always optimistic and always see the bright side of situations and of life. It is better for us all to be optimistic rather than pessimistic, even if some times the odds seemed stacked against you.
Today apparently, according to the media is the day of the year the winter blues ”set in” and if you have not already broken your new year resolutions then you are most likely to do so today.
When I heard this on the radio this morning I was actually feeling cheerful, enjoying looking at the blue sky and crisp ice patterns on the ground and bright winter sunshine through the window, watching the birds and the squirrel in the garden and feeling good.
Yet for a moment I caught myself thinking there must be something wrong with me, maybe I should be feeling the winter blues and feeling sad. So powerful are the words when spoken as ‘official’ and on the Radio …… !
It is soooo easy to plant an idea into someone’s head, or into our own head and think that is what we should be thinking and feeling and not actually thinking and feeling for ourselves. It really made me stop for a few minutes and reflect. I then turned the radio off!
Optimism opens a door in difficult and even apparently hopeless situations. No matter what the crisis, an optimist maintains the outlook that it is a sign, there will be a silver lining somewhere, a message of learning or it is just time for a different way of thinking, or of doing things.
Sometimes the sign for change has to be very clear even harsh, to make us wake up, think and act, we can all, at times live in denial.
Of course if we lack optimism and become a pessimist and do not take or listen to the signal to act or move on and step forward into change, then resentment, anger or even desperation will emerge and you will stay where you are.
I am sure you have heard the saying ‘Forever the Optimist’ there is nothing wrong in that, so as the New Year and the decade progresses and resolutions you made slip through your fingers, stay optimist and start each day with a smile and think of it as another new beginning and a time to move again. Don’t listen to the pessimists and the people who think they know better than you, they usually don’t, but they play the mind games just like the radio presenter almost did to me this morning.
Keep smiling and stay optimistic
Blessings
Julie x
