The Winter of Our Discontent

The crisp mornings and frosty nights of February tell us that we are again in the middle of winter. And this particular winter sees our world once more passing through unsettling times.

In so many regions, and in so many hearts, peace has given way to war and love has been usurped by hatred.

The news, the newscasts and the newspapers inform and remind us of the economic recession in which we find ourselves and the uncertainty that this creates is so often reflected in the faces of the people who come to see me.

Of course, no-one I meet expects me to have any kind of solution to wars or to be able to solve the economic mess that illusion and greed has brought us to.

I am, after all, a therapist, and not a political advisor or military strategist.

People do not visit me in order to directly secure their job or to bank their money.

No, clients come to the therapist because they have had enough of feeling down and powerless and because they feel the need to do something. They come because they want to move on with their lives and they are ready for change.

And only then can I help them.

We know that the news media will never tire of reminding us that there is reason to fear. It will never be short of stories that describe and graphically delineate the rise of hatred and uncertainty in the world.

But sometimes what is overlooked is the incontrovertible fact that despite all the reasons to fear, there are even more reasons for courage. Despite all the hatred in the world, there is even more love - and there always
will be.

Yes, we need to be aware of what is happening around and about us; what is happening in the world. But that does not mean that we are powerless puppets and that we can do nothing.

There is not a single one of us that was born to be a victim.

Even in the midst of uncertainty and change, we have a say in our own destiny. Once we feel the need to do something all that remains is to know that we can.

See yourself as moving forward and that will automatically become the direction in which you move.

You have it within you to cope. You have the ability to weather any storm.

Today your life begins all over again. The things you choose to do now and the actions that you take have the power to change your life, your work, your relationships, your business and your world.

Even in the winter and in the most unsettling of times, you have it within yourself to move forward into stability and growth. You have even the ability to help not only yourself, but others whom you meet on your journey.

The real news is that you have it within you to fully live the wonderful gift that is your life.

" What lies behind us and what lies before us are small matters
compared to what lies within us. "
Ralph Waldo Emerson