Watching Adrian Hosford, Moodscope’s Chairman, being interviewed by Kim Searle (my therapist), had a delightful surprise: that Moodscopers as a general rule are proving resilient in spite of these challenging times. (The interview is here: https://youtu.be/c7-XKRX1CB8)

Always one to buck the trend, I haven’t been manifesting much resilience! Last week, it got so troubling that I decided to take a ‘Free Day’. Yes, right in the middle of the week when I ‘should’ be working, I bunked off down to Lyme Regis and Colmer’s Hill near Bridport. I thank Moodscopers for this given the wonderful encouragement from last Monday’s blog to, “Go West!”

Here’s the really radical thing: I switched off my phone too!

As someone whose mental noise never seems to shut up, I need free days when I unplug. Given the success of Lex McKee’s Day Off, I may well take some more! And, of course, I’m recommending you do too. You may not be able to leap in the car and go West, but we can all have a ‘different’ day, an unplugged day, a quiet day, where the deeper parts of us can get a thought in edgeways and be heard.

Lyme Regis was like I’d never seen before. The tide was so far out that there was almost no water in the harbour. Magnificent boats, fit for purpose, with all the technology they needed to navigate through deep and troubled waters, were stranded. There was nothing they could do but wait for the tide to turn. I thought this was a great metaphor for the current situation. We can maintain our boats, we can have a Spring or Summer clean, but we are not going to leave harbour for a while, and it’s outside our control. It's time to be still.

Secondly, I took a Free Day because I’ve been ‘thrashing’ – desperately looking for some positive way forward. Looking at the sea, I realised I’d been drowning and needed someone else to rescue me. When you’re being rescued from drowning, the worst thing you can do is thrash! You need to stop thrashing and let yourself be rescued. So, for at least a day, I stopped thrashing and pushed ‘pause’.

I did a video from the top of my next location: Colmer’s Hill. It’s not specifically for our community but it covers the same topics if you’d like to see how wild it was on the top of the world!  (https://youtu.be/puAKRNt76tM) - and from the top of the world I may not have been able to see ‘forever’ but I could see a lot further into the future than I could when distracted by my busyness and ‘noise’ of an otherwise troubled mind.

If you, too, have had enough, take a Free Day and see what your heart says to you.

Lex

A Moodscope Member.