The world’s an overwhelming place at the moment. Floods nearby. War further out. Spooked financial markets. Supplies harder to come by. People worried, battling their own demons and challenges. Online or offline, the sensory overwhelm is intense.
How to reconcile the micro with the macro? There’s so few things that I have influence over, let alone control. War or floods don’t change whatever I do. Neither will people’s feelings and behaviors. Marcus Aurelius and the Stoics had the right idea: we can’t control anything – except our own happiness. Choose your outlook, and everything follows from that.
It was interesting to be thinking about this while I’m texting with an unhappy (?) ex-volunteer. I got a terse “please don’t contact me again” message from them. I have never met the person nor do will I ever. Nevertheless, the rejection would have stung, not that long ago. Knowing that the only thing I have control over is my attitude to this, I was able to put a pause between the message, and my response to that stimuli. It doesn’t matter; the implications are not worth losing my happiness over.
The media headlines have a blood red background – designed to make us see danger. I’ve never seen any media headlines in green. Wonder why that is?