I understand the concern that people are feeling right now particularly for their health and finances now being out of work myself for the foreseeable future and it has got me thinking about how we respond to difficult times. First of all, for me, I have faith in God as someone who will always protect and comfort which makes it easier for me to be sure that even though I can’t see what’s up ahead, I don’t need to worry.

Another way that I find helpful is looking back at what has happened, which gives me hope that things will be better. On a day that I was feeling particularly anxious recently, I got a notebook and wrote a ‘book of truths’ both on that day and throughout my life. This made me realise the thankfulness I ought to have, particularly how much I have achieved that I never thought I would achieve and that I have got through times when I thought things were pretty hopeless.

I have always enjoyed having a diary both to feel on top of things and knowing that I have things to look forward to. However, I try to be careful not to speculate too much about what is going to happen further down the line as ultimately, life is unpredictable. This has been a challenge for me over the last year such as being off my course with less than an hour’s warning and with the nature of my work sometimes knowing less than 3 hours before I’m supposed to start work as well as not fully knowing what the next few months will look like. However, reflecting on this, the classic line ‘life is like a box of chocolates, you never know what you’re going to get’ can be seen in a different way. Although, this is sometimes the case, you can usually trust that your go-to chocolate box will have the same ones each time you open it which I hope demonstrates that there is reason to be optimistic that there are things other than chocolate that don’t change.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you find it helpful. As always, feel free to get in touch with any questions/feedback/comments, I always love to hear it. Stay tuned for the next instalment.

Until next time

Kathryn