Anyone out there feeling somewhat gloomy at the moment?
Yeah, of course you are.
There are 100 possible reasons for that.

Anyone out there feeling hopeful at the moment?
Yeah, of course you are.
There are 100 possible reasons for that.

Yes, supremely weird frickin’ times.

Just when we were all bracing for a long, dark, pandemic-ridden, locked-down, recession-looming winter, hopeful news comes steaming through the door, and not even wearing a mask.

And for me there are two main aspects to the recent hope –
Biden won (sorry if you don’t agree with either that fact or my glee in that fact),
Vaccine news of an excellent nature arrives every 3 days (sorry if you don’t agree with that fact or my glee in that fact).

And just when you’re feeling a bit more perky because it’s not all bad news,
and Biden won and the vaccine cavalry are coming, you get hit with other sh*t news in one form or another (such as… Brexit is about to happen, oh crap… you can’t see your parents or friends until 2021 probably… Trump won’t concede… we’re going to have to pay for all these debts off one day… or… and this one was on the same front page as the first bit of 90% effective vaccine news: a third world war is more likely to happen coming out of this pandemic than for decades, according to brigadier someone, head or the British army, or something… nice timing matey, you’re not after more money are you… oh, you were, and you got it, frickin’ brilliant.)

And the whole messy mass of it all makes you wonder, doesn’t it?

What the frick were we worrying about before it became scary and dangerous to walk out of your own door, or touch your best friends?

Crikey, was there anything to worry about before THIS?

Well, YES, for those with very good memories, the kind of highly-tuned brain circuitry that can remember what you were thinking before February this year…

A year ago we were panicking about climate change, about our global house being on fire (genuinely, thanks Greta for helping wake the world up to that), about the possibility of making ourselves EXTINCT through our stupid actions, then Australia proved how close Greta’s metaphor was to the truth by burning like it’s never burnt before (yes, I’m foreshadowing an imminent Trump reference with that sentence construction), and we were all so horrified by that, and then people went skiing to relax and brought back the China Virus (Trump allusion part II).

And a year ago we would have been worrying about Trump too, surely. I can’t remember exactly what it would have been. But he would have said something or done something scary. Maybe that was when he had peaceful protesters tear-gassed out of the way so he could hold up a bible in front of a church.

So our climate / human-extinction-possibility anxiety preceded the even-more-imminent-human-attacking-virus-reality of the most serious pandemic in 100 years.

And a rapidly increasing awareness and ability to talk about ‘mental health’ preceded the greatest threat to our universal mental health in years.

Peculiar that, eh?

So…
Don’t worry if you don’t know whether to jump up and down with hope, or sit down on the nearest toilet to poo yourself.

Don’t worry if you’re sitting there feeling down or confused or concerned,
but can’t put your finger on exactly why
because there’s such a multifarious, heterogenous procession of nasties coming at us most days, that it’s perfectly natural.

And in this sometimes-gloomy-sometimes-hopeful craziest of days,
when we experience strangeness from the astonishing mundanity of our living rooms,
our lives shorn of restaurants, bars, cinemas, dinner parties, gigs and football matches (or whatever non-home-related-fun-distraction floats your usual boat),
get back to survival basics –

  • Take one day at a time
  • Remember that loads of people are feeling the same as you
  • Appreciate what you have, and what’s working
  • Find something to look forward to, too… something good that’s likely to happen

And, as ever, we’re here,
throwing you ‘F**k It’ bits of wisdom as we go,

John & Gaia xx

To find out more about  John and Gaia and how they can support you to live The Fuck It Life – click HERE

Share This

Share this post with your friends!