There’s plenty I love about this time of year – coloured leaves, camping in the crisp air – but I’m not a big fan of the descent into cold and dark in the Northern hemisphere. It was a whole lot easier to live in the tropics with days that never got all that short and temperatures that never got all that low (even there I pulled out my winter coat). But most of what’s important to me is up here in the Brrrrr zone.
We’ve all got things in our lives that we don’t like. Some of them are problems we can solve. Some of them are the definition of losing battles. So what do we do?
Of course there’s the big fix: attitude adjustment. Not lying to ourselves about our emotional response to whatever we’re dealing with. Not making Stepford Wives our role models. Recognizing that there’s something to be gained in every situation.
Most of my teachers agreed that everything and everyone needed to be blessed. There followed all sorts of questions about how to bless the worst of the worst. One of my favourites came from the reminder that plant life just loves to suck up carbon dioxide. And even the most creepy horrible difficult to deal with humans exhale carbon dioxide. So the blessing became all about feeding the trees when they breathe. I love plant life, and they were helping sustain it.
There’s another way to deal. Slide right down the slippery slope to the very bottom. Make use of the negatives to support something basic and positive.
For me, I’m addressing chronic sleep deprivation by making use of the dark. One day a week I’m getting into the cozy, warm bed as close to sundown as possible and not getting up again until after daylight shows up again. Do the math: that gives me a big bonus, more than 12 hours worth of lie down time.
So where’s your exhaling carbon dioxide, dive into the darkness opportunity? How do you get something you need from the situation you’re not in love with? Draw on all that creativity you discovered and put into practice earlier in the year.
Oh, and . . . on your way out . . . could you turn out the light?
Of course I can give you a hand with finding your own “light in the darkness” solutions. You know where to find me.