New Year Calm

Tension courses through my veins as I listen to another report about deaths and infection cases. The media always in my ear, always assaulting my senses with the fear of this deadly virus.

There are the charts again, more people dead, more families grieving the loss of family members. Sometimes I wish I could just wipe the fear away with a swipe of a wand, like some scene from the classic Harry Potter.

But this is a new year, a fresh start, perhaps I can do things differently?

Doing the same things and expecting different results as they say is insanity and I am voting no, to insanity! Voting, oh boy politics, suddenly I am stressed again!

I take a deep breath and refocus my mind, perhaps the constant media, social media, technology is making me lose my mind. Perhaps I don’t need to know the latest news and have an opinion on each and everything that comes across my screen, or enters my feed.

Perhaps I don’t need to allow the actions of others to raise my blood pressure, increase my heart rate and shorten my life.

Why do I let others control my emotions and physical state?

I must wrestle back control of self, look inward for peace, peace I knew before I had my nose stuck in screens.

I decide I am going back to nature, to spend more time with the people I love, without screens, screenless time for all of us.

Let’s watch a sunrise and watch a sunset, go to the beach early before anyone gets there, sit and look at the ocean and listen while we clear our minds and just be in the moment.

Take a bushwalk in the beautiful bushland that surrounds our house, watch the birds and the insects and any other creatures we come across going about their daily business.

Reconnect with nature and all that is.

Far removed from the digital prison I create for myself I can feel my brain rewiring, the calmness gives me clarity of thought, no longer am I just reacting. I am thinking and assessing and projecting and most of all, relaxing my mind.

Calm clarity, the distractions disappear and I can see that it’s not as the digital world had me believe, that we are all going to die and we need to all hide under our beds.

Speaking of beds, that’s something else I have decided, I will spend more time rejuvenating the cells of my body by deep peaceful sleep. Melatonin rejuvenates and heals, it visits us in the darkness and I commit to listening to the circadian rhythms of my body, as the relaxing hormones wash over me.

I can feel my body relax and my breathing slows and deepens, rejuvenating my cells with oxygen replenishment of the cool night air. The best days start the night before, we cannot be our best or give of our best if we don’t get the replenishing rest we require.

My bed floats along in the beautiful blue and tranquil ocean, dolphins come up to touch my hands which tickle the surface of the water as my bed floats adrift in perfect peace and tranquility.

I awaken to the suns rays gently caressing my skin, and I open my eyes to live in the moment. I look at the mountains and bushland and the sun rising. I make my way to the kitchen and I smell the fresh morning air, as I sip my honey cinnamon tea, I am still to watch and listen to the sounds of nature.

With clarity of thought comes the realization that I control very little and that I am privileged to be alive to witness my surroundings.

I focus on what I can see, smell and hear, I taste my cinnamon and honey tea, as I look up at the beautiful morning sky, the clouds and the sunrise like a large oil painting are drawing me in, I am a tiny witness to a large reality, a beautiful reality that I took for granted and never looked at.

I recall that Irish guy came to our house in Africa, and every night would sit on the roof to watch the African sunset, the most beautiful oranges and pinks and purples would mesmerize him.

At the time I thought he was mad, we just took for granted the beautiful weather and the stunning warm evenings and sunsets, warming the soul as the sun dropped behind the horizon in the west.

He had it right, the slowing of the mind and the clarifying of thought, and the contemplation of the beauty that surrounds me, a beautiful portrait painted every evening and every morning, a portrait I never looked at nor bothered to acknowledge.

The slowing of the mind and the rejuvenation of thought, the clarity that comes with observation of beauty, is what I will do in 2022. I will marinade in the beauty that surrounds me, I will stretch and greet each morning and evening with a clear and open mind, a rejuvenated and refreshed mind.

At night I will slow my thinking and keep away from the digital dungeon that pulls me down. I will watch the great orange ball of life-giving heat and warmth slowly descend behind the hills and bushland.

I will then spend more time connecting with the people I love, with no screens, and we will talk at dinner time, we will reconnect as humans, and disconnect from virtual intangible personalities.

Goodbye digital dungeon hello peace and tranquility.