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Leaving 2020 Peacefully: Stability in the Midst of Instability
Words Annabel Gold
We are approaching the time and season of not only festivities and family fun but reflection and thinking - whether you notice it or not, your mind is reviewing and reflecting on the year of 2020, it’s normal and helpful to get into this mode.
It is interesting to point out that around this season, many people experience a type of mental distress called Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). This disorder comes and goes with the seasons - it usually begins around the autumn through to winter then disappears in spring, some refer to it as winter blues but it seems to be much more than that. Common symptoms of SAD include fatigue, low energy, craving sweets and carbs, low energy levels, no interest in your usual favourite activities, feelings of sadness, irritability or anxiety. The distress is suggested to be linked to the lack of sunlight, but I believe that there are other contributing factors. ‘The end of year blues’ is where an individual becomes lower in mood and very self-critical in a pessimistic way around the winter season. Research has shown that there are many who are ruminators around this period, those who repeatedly go over their problems in their mind or by discussing with others, but have no clear plan to solve the issues. Ruminating is a major partner and factor of depression, these attributes inevitable onset of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD).
It’s been a year of an unexpected pandemic and drastic changes. As a world we were forced to panic, adjust to many jobs losses, money and the shut down of businesses. There have been major changes in the way we live, the way we think! We’ve had to be more cautious. We’ve also had more time and space to pause! Many things we've seen this year, we didn’t expect when we joyfully shouted “Happy New Year!”. We all felt the world events hit us in some way, shape or form.
What the current education system fails to teach us is how to deal with and handle difficult times and seasons of turmoil and crisis! There are no courses which enlighten us about the importance of resilience and how to build such an attribute. Resilience is the ability/capacity to recover quickly from difficulties, it is defined as the act of leaping or springing back. Let’s face the truth and reality that life is and will be tough! When the waves and tides are high and low, there are certain questions that we must ask, like...how do you keep a balanced heart and mind?
There’s a crisis - HELP!
Change thinking style — it’s easy to look at a problem as a problem because we have been programmed to see problems as difficulties, negative and unsolvable — the initial reaction for most from the hearing and seeing of COVID-19 was fear, caution, devastation and other intense negative emotions and feelings. Alternatively seasons of crisis & problems are opportunities to think and reflect! Get into Mind Quarantine - We live and operate in such a busy fast-paced world and everywhere we go, there is noise, it’s become so normal to complete and carry out activities with noise, music and it has now become awkward to have silence. I will remain an advocate of mindfulness meditation, it is so beneficial and key in keeping us balanced while it alleviates mind stress and anxiety.
More on mindfulness
The most difficult thing to do in this day and age is to master your own mind, our minds are mastered by the media, the ideas and thoughts we get are subconsciously deposited by the adverts we see and the portrayed lives we scroll through. The constant practice of mindfulness meditation can progressively get us to that place of mastery.
What is it?
The practice of mindfulness is about paying attention to your breathing, however it progressively extends beyond that and towards paying attention to your inward being, the ability to consciously understand and attend to what's happening within your heart and mind at every moment is a powerful skill - it’s bringing awareness to what your mind is actually doing. We live unconsciously, unaware of what our minds are doing. It is normal to have a wandering mind but continued practice mindfulness will help to tame this.
Much research has shown that the practice of mindfulness meditation changes the way our brain works. The amygdala is the ‘fear’ part of our brain, where we see everything as a threat, when this part of our brain is active this is the place from which we respond emotionally and irrationally, especially when there is any type of crisis or turmoil — we saw an example of this during COVID-19 — reactions were highly emotional and based on fear! Another part of our brain, the prefrontal cortex, which is bigger than the amygdala is the place from which we make good rational decisions, regulate our emotions, think and reason. It's a part of the control center that keeps us focused. Research shows that within mindfulness meditators, there is an increased use of the prefrontal cortex even in the midst of crisis and threatful circumstances. Many research studies have shown that expert mindful meditators have a higher tolerance for pain! Although they feel the same experience of pain as others, their perception of the pain is different, it is seen as less unpleasant. It seems as though expert meditators view pain as a neutral event rather than an emotional ordeal!
There is a major need for new world thinkers and innovators in all areas of human affairs and I don’t believe that those set of people will come from those who get trapped in the noise of this age, it’s those who can learn to get quiet inwardly, those who are not afraid to hear their hidden thoughts and settle them, those who develop mental toughness and resilience in the midst of chaos and panic.
From a personal perspective, some years ago, I was in a long-term relationship that was a few months away from marriage and things unexpectedly ended, it was a ship that had to end for both of us. After all the tears and flying emotions, it was clear that there was nothing left to do but develop and mature, I could not change anything but myself, my perspective. Not only did I surround myself with right thinking people but I began to spend a lot of time thinking, I had the space and time to be alone for once. I utilised that time to think and meditate. Through solitary time (which I was first afraid of), I began the journey of stripping layers of expectation of what I should be. Years on, I love my solitary place, it’s refreshing, it’s the time where I can have mind meetings and where I add value.
We all have one thing in common, we cannot control what happens in our lives, however we can progressively reach a place of being in control of how we respond to what happens - this is a powerful ability.