It’s Tough out Here.
As we come up on a holiday season that is going to look quite a bit different this year, I know many of us are sad, some are broken-hearted, and most of us are stretched past our comfort zone. A majority of us are in financial difficulty and a lot are literally on the edge of having no funds to pay bills with and may be homeless now or soon.
You never know what someone else is going thru, but if it's like most Americans right now it's not easy street by any means. We either know someone who has gotten sick or possibly died from Covid, we’re close friends with a nurse, doctor or frontline worker, or we’ve lost work or know someone who has, and then we’ve all seen the enormous lines of people and cars waiting to receive food boxes—shockingly. 9 million more of us have fallen beneath the poverty in the last 10 months. And yes, there is the pivotal election where American citizens are arguing about what the truth is. This is a tragically sobering time, yet maybe it can help us redefine what is important to us individually and collectively— and how we can learn to be authentic in this moment.
If today finds you fearful and anxious, let someone know. If someone asks you "how are you doing?", take a chance and be honest with them. Just speaking about what's going on can help us de-compress and feel less burdened, and you never know what may happen when you just take a chance! And let’s all be ready to listen and to do something for someone else in whatever way we can, to look for those opportunities everyday. . Maybe buy coffee for the person behind you in line, go ahead and give some spare money to that person on the street —and be sure to look them in the eyes and ask how they are doing. We can all thank our cashier or grocery stocker for being there for us, and how about taking time to talk to the young person who knocks on our door to raise money for their cause, or drop off some flowers or a meal for a shut-in in our neighborhood?
Living a healthy life is not just about what you do for yourself--with eating real food, getting regular exercise, practicing self-care and all the areas I help my health coaching and personal training clients with--its how you treat the people that cross your path everyday. When we take the time to notice, to reach out with kindness and care to someone else, we are being kind and caring to ourselves. It is a daily reminder that we are all in this together, we need to depend on each other—and political, social or racial divisions don't matter when people are hurting and just need to be seen and heard. This is how we begin to heal and unify this country right now---reach out today to someone in need of love.
“One of the most important things you can do on this earth is to let people know they are not alone.”