A whole lot of time has passed since I last shared my meandering thoughts on this blog. I heard someone say the other day that a blog is really your own personal space to rant…hmmm.. certainly a bit of truth in that, for sure. Blogs provide a platform for dialogue, to kickstart discussion, share a personal or professional opinion (good or bad, or however we deem to judge), or simply state the obvious. I prefer to take a positive stance and believe that for whatever reason a person chooses to write in a public forum, it takes humility and courage or perhaps, complete blind ignorance! Maybe ignorance really is bliss! Perhaps, we need to spend a little less time judging and more time encouraging; if something is created without the intent to harm, then hopefully, it will offer someone a little bit of good. As I like to ask, what’s the alternative?
It’s the beginning of July and back home, despite the grim Covid infection updates worldwide, everyone appears to be doing their best, as Canadians do, in celebrating Canada Day. Here in New Zealand, we’ve been free of community-based infections with the exception of a few new international arrivals. And although the world seems to be beyond the tipping point with newly infected persons each day, I feel we are in a very large bubble where what's happening across the pond seems very distant. With that distance, comes the knowledge that the health and safety of everyone depends on prudence, discipline, and compliance. More than ever we need to work together if we are going to successfully make it through to the other side. But this comes at a cost and I worry about the long term impact on our individual and collective mental health and well-being.
I am not going to lie, I have been finding it difficult these past few weeks living here in NZ, while family and friends are back in Canada, and with each day that goes by I sometimes feel like I am in my own Lalala Land. I cannot diminish the fact either that there is a significant level of subconscious stress I have been pushing deep into the abyss of my being. A coping mechanism that many are too familiar with; it’s just how we become hardwired to survive, to keep on going while trying to minimize the impact of what difficulty(s) surround us. We are consciously and subconsciously dealing with unprecedented change, challenges, and impacts to our personal and professional lives, to name a few. To better explain this, conjure up an image of an iceberg. What you see of the iceberg above the water, is 1/10 of its actual size, the other 9/10 is below the water level. This image provides a depiction of conscious and subconscious stress where 1/10 represents the conscious stress that we are aware of, dealing with, and working through. The other 9/10 below the water, represents subconscious stress that we either suppress without even realizing, or are completely unaware of, that's the part that causes the most concern. Once in a while this stress emerges, like a bad cyst trying to break the skin with its ugly head, this is when I need to dig deep into my backpack of strategies and thrust it down. But it’s not easy, and as I mentioned to a colleague today, the awareness and acknowledgement that it’s okay to feel the stress is key to managing and balancing stress; to proactively deal with it and not allow it to take over. Like the iceberg, we need balance to stay afloat.
I believe it’s time to start talking openly about the challenges we are experiencing, deal with the issues head on, and to begin the process of integrating strategies to support one another as a means of diminishing the potential negative impacts of living in this time. While we have diligently worked to flatten the curve of infected persons, maybe it’s time to begin to work toward ensuring the iceberg, our overall state of health, remains afloat. For ourselves, our community, and the world. It’s not over yet. It's never too late to reach out. Find a safe friend. Be that shoulder. Actively Listen. Be perceptive. Be patient. Love without ceasing. Collectively, let's ensure that we all have someone, so be that person, and/or reach out to your person.
Stay safe. Be kind. Stay calm. Take care of yourself friends.
Love and hugs from the T-Dot (That's Twizel, not to be confused with Toronto...)
Image of my beautiful daughter, Caitlain and me taken at Tasman Glacier in Feb 2019. Talk about the Tip of the Iceberg: Haupapa / Tasman Glacier is the largest glacier in New Zealand, and one of several large glaciers which flow south and east towards the Mackenzie Basin from the Southern Alps in New Zealand's South Island.
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