The end of an old year and the beginning of a new one can seem like a big deal that needs big changes and big efforts on our part just to cope with the enormous events on the horizon. It can feel particularly acute in the turbulent and uncertain times in which we seem
to be living right now. We might wonder if we need great strength and wisdom to face whatever is round the corner for us in 2018.
It hits us all: that clutch in the stomach, the cold hand of fear that grips us as we feel we’re just not up to the challenge. We feel like we just want to cuddle up in a blanket in front of the fire and hide until it all goes away. It’s not surprising that the cosy,
cuddly, family-friendly Hallmark TV Channel has recently had a surge of new viewers. People are looking for an escape. |
It’s a big con, though, this idea that we need superhuman strength to meet the day-to-day challenges now and in the future. Taking a deep breath, stepping back and looking at it from the point of view of history you see that it’s usually the quieter, less
glamorous qualities that have made a difference in the world. Yes, great courage has often been needed in times of crisis but behind that the strength that has kept people and nations going has generally been the more regular, quieter qualities of kindness, tolerance, generosity and persistence in what we think is right, even when no immediate result seems evident.
It’s those small things that we all can do -
and often do do - that build strong defences, support governments to make the right decisions and hold families and societies together. We can all do more of them. It just takes a bit of remembering…and persistence.
And we don’t need to think that the good we can do is too little to matter. As the old poem goes:
3“What if the little rain should say, ‘So small a drop as I Can ne’er refresh a drooping earth, I’ll tarry in the sky.’”
The smallest acts of kindness, even the occasional willingness to tolerate what we are usually too impatient to put up with, all add up to changing our society and our world for the better. Stronger bonds with family and friends - treating friends more like family and family more like family (you know what I mean - actually loving, forgiving, tolerating and giving) - can shield us from many of the shocks the world can throw at us. |
Just as people build a strong resistance to threats - political or natural - when they stand in a line with arms about each other’s necks than when they stand separately, so our resilience is strengthened when we hold each other up. As the old
Chinese proverb goes: Hell is a long table laden with food where each diner’s chopsticks are too long to reach their mouths while Heaven is the same situation but where everyone is feeding each other.
The most insignificant-seeming act of ‘rightness' can also have ripples we couldn’t imagine. The Financial Times’s Person of the Year 2017 is Susan Fowler, the young woman who blew the whistle on the sexual harassment at Uber, where she worked, in a simple blog which went viral. This little blog sparked not only a huge overhaul at Uber (including the sacking of its founder) but also what the FT describes as an "an avalanche of allegations about sexual
harassment and assault that have brought down some of the most important men in media, entertainment and business, and which hold the potential to improve the way women are treated at work permanently.”
She didn’t expect this. She couldn’t have. But it happened.
So imagine what we could all do by quietly standing for what is right
here and there, and keeping that position, whatever is thrown at us.
Let’s de-clutter our lives this week and while we’re throwing out old clothes, gadgets and homeware, let’s also throw out the old fears, inertia and gloom. They don’t belong to us and don’t
have to attach themselves to our lives if we don’t let them. There is unimaginable good awaiting all of us in the next year if we’re willing to be open to it.
Go get it! Merry Christmas.
Love, Jasmine |
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39 Ways To Be Happy eBook
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I’m serious about all that good awaiting us.
For a start, did you expect the gift of a FREE eBook on how to be happy?
No?
Well, here it is…and that’s just the start!
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Here's your present
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A week of Christmas Competitions |
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Six days of Christmas competitions!
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As a further treat, from Boxing Day until New Year's Eve, we're giving you a chance to win a great prize each day.
Even better, these are all prizes that should help get your 2018 off to a fantastic healthy start.
You can enter the first competition tomorrow.
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Enter here
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If you think your friends or family will find this newsletter helpful, you can email it to them.
Every newsletter is bursting with money making and money saving ideas, plus exclusive deals, competition prizes and freebies.
Love, Jasmine |
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