Happy New Year

Well, it's been a good start to 2014 for me. Exercise - tick. Healthy eating - tick.  Quality time spent with husband and children, stress-free, etc etc...all good.

Now I just have to keep all those plates spinning for the next 364 days. And try not to feel too bad when I drop some of them, which is bound to happen.

I hope you are all having/had a good holiday. It occurs to me more and more as time goes on (i.e. as I get older) that a lot of the pressure we feel in life is self-inflicted. Certainly in our pampered Western existences.  Here we sit, warm and full, healthy and fortunate. And yet instead of enjoying our lives we complicate them. We worry about our future, about the futures of our children. We convince ourselves that we haven't got enough resources despite all evidence to the contrary, and we try to accumulate more.  Instead of basking in the company of family and friends we complain, we mistrust. We find fault with others and we mock them.  Why do we live like this?

It's not everyone, I know that. I firmly believe that the majority of humans are good, for the vast majority of the time.  I am no better or worse than everyone else - I don't always behave well or think well of others. Although I am acutely aware of my failings nowadays that doesn't stop me failing.

 What I am getting at here is the fact that in the West our collective mental health is not good, and that it is within our power to change that. I am sure that a change in attitude from one person must have a ripple effect on others - if I let go of bitterness, aggression, disappointment and so on, people will no longer react to me in those ways.

 In the year ahead I have decided to work on my mental health by being more conscious of the quality of my relationships with other people. I will keep you posted.