Look How Far We’ve Come

Here in New York, winter drags on. It’s always cold. It’s usually dark (yes, even during the day– we’ve had very little sun, just a gray haze). The routine is always the same. This year, it hasn’t even been broken up by snow; we’ve had only one snow day.

In midwinter, everyone in school goes a little stir crazy. The students become harder to work with. They’re unfocused, unmotivated, and there’s little release for their pent-up energy. No one really wants to be there, including the staff. It’s the downward curve of the school year.

It’s been a great effort, frankly, to hold onto mental health. I learned my lesson (I seem to have to learn it every winter) and am being very strict with my habits. I use the app “Done” on my phone (the free version), and I track daily:

  • Exercise
  • Yoga (I do a sun salutation every morning)
  • Journaling
  • Writing
  • Eating 7 servings of vegetables
  • Eating 6 servings of protein
  • Using my therapy light
  • Reading
  • Listening to music

But even those interventions aren’t always enough to keep me going throughout the monotony of the season. When I start to feel that mental itch, I step into my new mindset. It’s called Look How Far We’ve Come.

It’s a fun game, because it doesn’t keep you in the present moment; it brings you into the past, and gives you hope for the future. All you do is take a moment to notice the situation you’re in and think of how that situation has changed for the better.

A few examples:

Scenario: My son and daughter are wrestling in the living room.

I think: She used to need weekly physical therapy and now she’s so strong she can stand up to a ten-year-old. Look how far we’ve come.

Scenario: My students are raucously blasting their instruments after rehearsal when they should be packing up.

I think: Three years ago, I would’ve given anything to hear that sound instead of the heartbreaking silence of Google Meets. Look how far we’ve come.

Scenario: I’m putting towels in our linen closet after a long afternoon of chores.

I think: All our decluttering during the move paid off, because I finally have a neat, organized linen closet. Look how far we’ve come.

It’s not a simple gratitude practice, although of course gratitude is part of it. It’s a perspective on time that’s particularly helpful after a pandemic. We’ve forgotten, already, how awful things were then. I’ve forgotten, already, how hard it was when my kids were young. I need reminders of how far we’ve come. Things are still hard, and also, they’re not as hard as they were.

aerial view of mountain and body of water
Photo by SplitShire on Pexels.com

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