This Will Help you get Through 2021

It was a late December evening in 2015 and my wife and I were sat enveloped in the pitch black, in our small, rusty home, in an isolated village tucked away in the desert of West Africa.

We lit a candle so we could see. On that particular evening, all we had for dinner were two rolls of bread, butter, and some water.

We were on a retreat in Mauritania to escape modern life, detox and learn Arabic.

We sat in complete silence, enjoying the moment as we ate our small meal. It didn’t matter that we didn’t have hot water or electricity. Or that there were scorpions and strange insects. We felt fulfilled, calm, and present. And the bread tasted delicious.

Despite the simplicity, it was one of the best moments of my life; the true meaning of ‘less is more’ hit home and I realised that life is truly worth living when you can be at peace with yourself, the moment, and your surroundings.

There is something to say about this mentality as we begin 2021.

You see, lockdown and the negative news can tempt us to treat every day with contempt and bitterness. We aren’t having new, adventurous, and exciting experiences right now. There is no travel, no new coffee shops to try out, and no new areas of our city that we can go out and explore.

Alternatively, we can choose to see the beauty of what we have, embrace it, and be present with it.

Lockdown may have taken away some of our outward freedoms, but freedom is not just physical or space-bound, it’s primarily a state of mind.

The sun still rises every morning, mothers still suckle their infants, flowers will continue to blossom, we have fresh air (unless you live in London), the beauty of the night sky, the full moon and so much more.

That’s not to say we won’t face struggle - life is definitely punctuated with difficulty - but these difficulties are by their nature fleeting, but our positive mindset doesn’t have to be.

Honestly, when we begin to realise that life’s greatest joys are the simplest of things like fresh bread and butter, and when we minimise expectation, we can cultivate an attitude to withstand even the toughest of times