A victim mentality can really block us from a whole lot of connection with other people. The ego bleating that no one understands and that we have it harder. I was having a little internal shit fit the other day about something I had gotten wrong, that then created a cascading affect on my week that was going to create chaos. And then I read an article that COVID is impacting the UK so hard, yet a motion to supply hungry children with meals in the term breaks was denied. ‘Job-losses caused by the pandemic have exacerbated an already stark hunger problem in highly unequal Britain, where 22% of people and 30% of children live in poverty despite it being the sixth-richest country in the world by GDP. Before the pandemic struck, 10% of children in the U.K. were living in households affected by “severe food insecurity,” which the Food Foundation defines as poverty that results in hunger. Now, the number may be as high as 20% as the pandemic puts strains on family incomes, according to the Food Foundation’, documents Time Magazine.
I certainly snapped out of my little pity party, but it got me thinking about something we all know, but is harder to keep with us at ALL times – there’s a gazillion people worse off than us. The really obvious things like poverty for example, are right there for us to acknowledge. But it’s the things we can’t see that affect people too. Domestic violence, a diagnosis, a secret affair, an inevitable job loss and all the repercussions that are coming. Your colleague, a family member, a close friend. A lot plagues as as humans that we keep private, sometimes a deep secret. So I wanted this email to be a call to be kinder to everyone we know. A call for us not just to donate and petition and do what we can to alleviate the very obvious, but to also be as kind hearted to every single person we meet, we know, and we love. For the truth is, we rarely know what’s truly going on for anyone.
Sent with kindness,
Jac x