Living Healthy when the World feels Like it’s Going to Hell
It seems all around me that people are struggling in the face of world events. No wonder. It’s a heavy time. With so much darkness around us in the world, our mental and physical health can start to be impacted. So what can we do about it? Perhaps it feels pointless or even selfish to focus our attention on own well-being when there is so much suffering out there.
Why bother when there is so much wrong out there that will never be put right by making a healthy dinner for ourselves or for pushing ourselves to do that exercise we know we should do? I get it. But the truth is that we can’t control what is happening “out there” - hell we can barely control what’s happening in our own lives right? You do everything right and still you get sick, you work out consistently and then you pull a muscle and feel like you’re back to zero again. Life does be lifeing! So what do we do then? Well, I don’t know if you are familiar with Viktor Frankl? Perhaps you’ve heard of him? He was a Jewish doctor during the Second World War who was imprisoned in a concentration camp. Faced with so much suffering he realised that he couldn’t control anything else around him, only his own mind. He could decide what kind of attitude to take in the face of suffering.
Now that guy was definitely stronger than me because I would probably sink into a pit of hopelessness and despair if I found myself in circumstances even half as difficult as that! But, I can recognize that the man definitely has a point. If I am in a grumpy mood and I let it fester, complain about every problem and take a pessimistic attitude about life then things don’t tend to get any better for me. I feel miserable and I give off miserable energy to everyone around me. The reverse is also true. If I actually try focus on the positive, I tend to feel much better and have better interactions with people. Does it solve all my problems? Nope. But it helps.
Instead, of repeatedly exposing myself to things beyond my control I am focusing on things that bring me joy. My favourite podcasts, feeding the pigeons who call to my garden every morning, reading books, listening to music I enjoy - the small things that almost seem insignificant are the very things that are keeping me plodding on.
If you find yourself overwhelmed with the darkness of life. Stop. Breathe and reassess. Start to notice what is making you feel worse and make steps to remove it from your life. Identify what is going well for you and make a conscious effort to focus on those things. It’s not about denying the negatives, rather, it’s an acknowledgement that even in the darkest of worlds there are still beautiful things to appreciate. There is still hope. There is still love to give and receive, and there are still moments of joy to create and appreciate. It can be incredibly hard to find the positive sides of things in life, but it is a skill that you can practice and improve upon. And the thing I have to point out is that this is not just woo-woo advice. Research has shown us that our mindset does have a bearing on how good we feel physically and mentally. Cultivating a positive mindset is protective, and it can keep us going when all else falls to pieces.
Hang in there! ❤️
"Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way." - Viktor Frankl
https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-figures/viktor-frankl.htm