[Kate!]

Originally Posted by Benjamin

I do.

It’s very easy to get caught up in the stress and negativity of the world, and see life as mundane. But it’s your mindset on things which makes the difference. Regardless if you are stressed or calm about something, it doesn’t change that something, so I’d rather take it calm and not let it grind me down for no reason. By doing that I appreciate life and enjoy things much more than I did.

It took me a while to adopt that mindset though, and the whole mess that was Covid times really changed me in a bad way at first. I used to be a lot more care-free/free-spirited but as I got older it started to dwindle as “real life” takes over.

Then during Covid it nearly broke me as it left my life thrown upside down and without warning I had to move back to the UK and leave my life behind in NZ.

Getting back to the UK mid covid was awful, plus was start of winter. I found myself feeling so withdrawn and down. I recall going on a walk one day and it was beautiful but I felt nothing, which I never do about nature. It was as that point I decided as crap as it was there’s nothing I could have done, so rather than let it ruin the rest of my life, look for the positives from it all to help enjoy life. I also stopped following/watching the news as it’s all about negativity and I came off social media for a while (I still do social media and news breaks now).

It’s also finding what it is you enjoy in life and making time for it, as it’s so easy to not. I’m really into traveling, hiking, outdoors, gardening etc but it’s not for everyone, and that’s fine.

Lovely post Ben. Bless you.