Tag: calm

Working again

'A Poetic Potter & A Potting Poet'Leave a comment

First published 3rd April 2021

Photo by fauxels on Pexels.com

After grinding to a halt last year (when I was 64), I’ve had 12 months of resting and recuperating. It’s been great to have no time pressures, be able to catch up on household jobs and generally just ‘chill’. However, I still don’t feel like giving up on my working life altogether and have just started a new job. It’s part-time and temporary – just for a few weeks – and has tested my ability to keep calm in the face of new technology (use of a smart phone is an intrinsic part of the job). With some effort I’ve been able to keep my anxiety levels within manageable parameters – breathing through the stress and repeating my ever-faithful affirmation of ‘I choose to be peaceful and calm; everything is unfolding as it should’. There have been times when I have felt anything other than peaceful and calm but I seem to be settling in. It’s tiring, but I’m doing it.

When I was going through the worst of my breakdown, one of things I hung on to, to haul myself through, was the knowledge of how hard I’d worked when I was younger – dealing with anxiety without any coping mechanisms for a long time – to develop work skills and experience. I was determined that all that hard work would not go to waste.

I do believe that if more people had more help with anxiety and associated difficulties when they were younger, it would help to avoid the devastation that having a breakdown can bring. As a society we still have a long way to go before we can consider ‘inclusion’ a reality rather than a pretend game.

 

Day 9

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Continuing the story of Lydia and Me

Lydia is very calm on our walk this morning; much calmer than she’s been on a walk for a very long time. It’s lovely just to amble along with her, stop when she sniffs at and forages blackberries, feel no need to do much other than just walk along with my dog beside me. I tell her what a lovely dog she is and let her know how much I’m enjoying my walk with her.

I also thank her when we get back to the car. I want her to feel appreciated. She is.

The sense of mellowness and calm continues throughout the day.

I visit a friend in the village. We also go for a walk together, and we thank each other to show our appreciation of each other’s company.  It’s a lovely thing, to enjoy the company of another; nothing to prove; just a sense of being together, being alive and being there for each other, even if it’s just for that day.

As I write, Lydia is enjoying being outside on a day which is warmish with a soothing breeze.

I’m enjoying being inside, with the door open.

A lingering sadness remains and always will, but the nagging, aching grief has gone, as each day brings something new, or not new. It doesn’t matter. Each day just brings.

No such thing

There’s no such thing
As an ordinary day
Each day awakens
In its own way

Some days it rains
Some days it’s sunny
Some days are serious
And nothing seems funny

There’s no so thing
As an ordinary day
Each day is different
In its own way

Some days are lonely
Some days are glad
Some days are joyful
Others are sad

There’s no such thing
As an ordinary day
Each day unfolds
In its own way

Some days are busy
Others are slow
Some days it’s hard
To know which way to go

There’s no such thing
As an ordinary day
Each one just passes
In its own way

***

And when the day
Is done and gone
We sleep
Until another day
That isn’t ordinary
Comes along

Maggie Baker
April 2025

Day 8

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Continuing the story of Lydia and Me

We had an early start this morning, Lydia and me.

It was misty when we stepped out, and the spiders had been busy all night by the look of it. There were webs everywhere, finely woven and sparkling when the sun started to shine.

After our walk, I gave Lydia her breakfast and headed off to meet up with a friend.

We don’t meet often, this friend and I, but we settled into each other’s company quickly and easily, as only good friends can do.

Like me, she has recently suffered from anxiety, so we were able to ‘compare notes’. She’s found hypnotherapy a great help; I’ve found meditation works for me, along with affirmations.

“I choose to be peaceful and calm. Everything is unfolding as it should.”

I did a quick Google search and it seems that hypnotherapy is not usually available on the NHS, which means that it sometimes is.

I’ll stick with meditation for now, but hypnotherapy is something that I had little awareness of before and know a bit more about now.

We talked about a lot of other things too, of course, and I so enjoyed catching up with my friend. Then I had another good friend to go home to: Lydia of course!

Good friends come in all shapes, sizes and species. I don’t know where I’d be without them.

Day 17

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Continuing the story of Lydia and Me https://amzn.eu/d/99yW3Qk

Despite, or more likely because of the mind, body and breath work I’ve been doing over the last few days, I’m feeling quite stressed today.

If this sounds contradictory, it isn’t.  When I do work on myself at a deep level, I find it releases stresses and toxins, and then it can take a while for them to work out of my system.  So, I’m taking the time to be easy with myself for a few days. I’ve just been reading outside while it is warm and sunny, but with some welcome shade.

Lydia is loving it too. I gave her a few “rub-a-dub-dub” massages on our walk this morning, as well as a really extended one before we left the house.

“I choose to be peaceful and calm. Everything is unfolding as it should.”

I have a trip to the cinema with friends lined up for this afternoon and will then go on to the Buddhist meeting this evening.  For now, I meditate and then go outside to enjoy a bit more of this amazing weather. One more cup of coffee for the road? Yes.