I am waaaay overdue for a blog post so here it is. This blog comes from a situation I talked about in my latest email newsletter and I wanted to expand on it a bit.
Do you do jigsaw puzzles? They seemed to be the “all the rage” during the pandemic and I admit, I pulled a couple out of my games stash to work on during that time. During the month of December last year, I was sick with some sort of “crud” and spent a lot of time on the couch. I decided to get a jigsaw puzzle app on my iPad to help me pass the time.
It’s pretty easy to do a puzzle when you just slide the pieces across your screen and they pop in when they are in the right spot. Don’t get me wrong, it takes skill to figure out which goes where but it’s way easier than trying to fit a piece in manually.
So I did a lot of puzzles before Christmas…a lot! You might even say that I am kind of addicted. Or maybe I just use them as a distraction, either way, I still do at least one puzzle per day.
Puzzle pieces are interesting because you need to take a detailed part of a whole big picture and fit into just the right place. This requires focusing on details which is something that challenges me to be honest. But I noticed something kind of amazing as we were driving to a Christmas gathering and I was looking at the countryside on the way.
We we were driving along, I realized that I was noticing all the colors in the sky. The sky is not just one color, even on a sunny blue-sky day, there are shades of blues, whites and maybe grey. We have all seen a beautiful sunset or sunrise with all the obvious colors but have you ever looked at the sky on a cloudy day? Check out the colors that are not immediately noticeable-do you see the different shades of grey or white or maybe even pink?
I also noticed the trees and more specifically, the individual branches of them against the sky. Where I live it’s winter, and the trees have no leaves except for the evergreens, so it’s easy to see those branches. I am actually seeing them in more detail now which is kind of amazing. Instead of skimming over the landscape, I pay attention to the details.
That had me thinking about how easy it is to just skim the surface of everything we see and how we miss the beauty around us. This newfound revelation had me thinking about 2023 and what I want to focus on.
I decided this year that my phrase for 2023 was going to be “Look for the Good.”
Instead of getting bogged down in negativity and frustration, I am going to actively seek out what is positive and good about situations and life in general. It has not been easy; 2023 started out with people I know passing away, people I love being sick, horrible weather etc etc. I guess you could call it a coping mechanism to keep looking for the good in these situations; whatever you want to call it, it does help.
Looking for the good is another way to focus on a positive mindset so that you can deal with frustration and anything upsetting in your life. Training your mind to see the good around you will help you realize what is truly important. You will be drawn to the good and know when something is not.
Now please don’t think that I am saying that looking for the good will make your life all sunshine and flowers, it will not. We all have bad things that happen to or around us and we need to deal with them. But keeping this positive outlook will help you deal with the not-so-good in a healthier way. Even better, your positive outlook will be contagious to those around you and they will be drawn to the good as well. Before you know it, you will have a circle of people in your life that are feeling like you are and that circle will just keep on growing.
If you would like some tips on changing your mindset, I have a guide for you that will help. Check out my Free Resources page at https://www.midlifewithcourage.com/free-resources to get your copy.
So start looking for the good in your life, take care of your beautiful self and I will talk to you soon!
~Kim