We have hope again!

Change is in the air

Mar 04, 2023

As I’m writing this it’s snowing again. Winter doesn’t want to leave this year, but despite what it seems like, spring will be arriving. It always does.
Change is inevitable. No matter how endless a season or situation may appear, it won’t stay like this forever.

We have been in a different winter as well. Life has been challenging for a long time. The stress of the last few years caught up with many of us, and I’ve witnessed too many people crumble under the weight of it. We have seen more burnout, anxiety, substance abuse, heart problems and illnesses caused by stress than ever before.

But!

You know what’s happening now? After a long period of hopelessness and despair, a palpable change is in the air. We collectively kept our heads down and trudged through our days alone, needing all our energy to put one foot in front of the other and to keep going. But that winter of isolation and hardship is coming to an end. We all seem to have heard a secret signal to look up and to reach out to each other.

I used to bring books to work to read during my breaks, or went outside to be alone. I craved solitude and an escape from reality, because reality was almost too difficult to bear. If I did go to the lunch room it would be eerily quiet in there, with everybody either buried in their phone or taking a desperately needed nap. We barely talked to each other, too exhausted to muster the energy.

The change started slowly, as change often does. I still brought my book to work just in case, but instead of hiding inside it I started visiting other departments and chat with whoever was on. At first we almost exclusively complained about everything: the workplace, the government, the state of the world. We felt trapped in a situation where we thought we were helpless, destined to work in desperate conditions forever. The only way out seemed to be jumping ship and leaving; we could see no other alternative.

But slowly, we started discussing solutions. You can only complain for so long before it gets tiresome; endlessly bemoaning something you can’t change is pointless and draining. There were enough of us who didn’t want to give up, so we started brainstorming solutions.

It’s amazing what happens when you shift your focus from “there’s nothing we can do” to “what can we do”? It’s such a subtle yet powerful change in mindset.
We are stronger together than apart, so we started to talk to each other again, focussing on more than just surviving. Everybody deserves to thrive, and over the last few weeks we have been rallying together.

The results are starting to show, and we are thrilled! It’s as if everybody has woken up after an exceedingly long hibernation and wants to start living again. Good changes are happening, we are supporting each other again, and we’re even - dare I say it? - having fun at work again.

To quote Dumbledore from Harry Potter:
"We are only as strong as we are united, as weak as we are divided."

It’s incredible to have hope again after such a long period of darkness. It also has shown me once again that you can only improve your life if you face problems and deal with them instead of hiding from them.
Communication is the most powerful tool of change you have at your disposal, and it becomes more effective the more you use and practice it.

Nothing is more empowering than reaching out to others. Every single person I’ve ever talked to has told me that they’ve felt alone. Alone with their thoughts, alone with their feelings, alone in thinking nobody else is as weird/screwed up/abnormal as them. Every.Single.Person.

The only way how we can banish this loneliness is by shining light on it.

Talk to each other. Be vulnerable. Share your truth. Reach out.
We are all much more alike than we think we are.

Much love to you! Spring is on its way, in more ways than one.

💐 Miriam

We have hope again!

Change is in the air

But!

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