Pause for thought
In a society where life never stops Ben Clatworthy looks at the advantages of taking a moment to reflect.
It’s seldom that any week goes by without us hearing of some unpleasant news story or other. Take last week or so, the Togo national football team were shot at on their way to the African Cup of Nations; Sunday Mirror journalist Rupert Hamer was killed in Afghanistan by a roadside bomb and on Tuesday catastrophe struck the island of Haiti when an earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 destroyed towns and cities. It is reported that the current casualty rate stands at an estimated 200,000 people.
Quickly the world’s attention turned to this small country as one of the largest ever aid operations got underway in the latter stages of the week. This time last week the small country with it’s population of just over 10 million was unheard of by many people, today, I doubt there is a single person in the UK who doesn’t know about the country.
Everyone needs a rest from time to time!
It really isn’t the most uplifting set of news stories by anyone’s measure. Reading the Telegraph this morning I then went on to learn that Monday 18 January 2010 is in fact the “most depressing day of the year”. Nicknamed ‘Blue Monday’, the day was inspired by a British psychologist who worked out that using a pseudo-mathematical formula involving the weather, debt, motivational levels and time elapsed since Christmas that the third Monday in January is destined for doom and gloom. Friday June 18 2010 will apparently be the happiest day of the year.
Regardless, in a day and age when ones phone vibrates 20 times a day, the television is always on, the internet powers life and Facebook is a child’s pastime, do we really take enough time to pause for a little thought and reflection? Be it a moment of quietness each day, or a prayer before bed it seems that these days we rarely ever disconnect from the bustle of day to day life enough.
The other day I found myself sitting next to a businessman on an EasyJet flight, from the moment he sat down out came his BlackBerry and up popped his email. Just before take-off the cabin crew lady exclaimed to him, “that needs to be fully switched off now, sir”, immediately he snapped back, “it’s on flight mode”. I don’t want to speculate over flight safety guidelines for one moment but last time I checked ‘flight mode’ was not fully switched off; never mind. The process was then repeated the moment the seatbelt sign faded out, right through until it was time to land.
I on the other hand had enjoyed a cup of tea, read the in-flight magazine, listened my iPod and even had a quick nap; let me wonder who felt most relaxed getting off that plane.
So, maybe next time you feel a little down, or even just tired, take a moment to reflect on life, and the bigger picture. It might just help blow away those Monday morning blues.
This article was first written by Ben Clatworthy for Clifton College in January 2010.
