It always surprises and saddens me how mental health affects of our fellow humans in so many different ways.
I would like to share with you what happened to me today...
On calling my insurance company to tweak my policy and spoke to a lovely young lady who seemed really happy, professional, and chatty.
During our (what turned out to be a long) conversation, we came to the part where she offered to speak about my investments. Well, I laughed out loud and joked about my current situation, and how over the past year I have spent my savings and lived off my credit cards as I lost clients due to Covid. She was extremely sorry and genuinely sympathetic and asked how I was coping? I explained that despite the loss of income, I have had a great year doing other things and spending time with my animals, simply mooching around without the usual daily pressure of business (which I miss so much), and living off a shoestring, all in all it has been OK. Myself, focusing on the positives and working hard not worry about the things that I cannot change, just going with the flow, enjoying the moment, whilst pushing on to rebuild my business. How, in fact, I actually felt lucky to have not suffered the loss of anyone I loved during the pandemic, when there are so many people who are much worse off than me - that kept me focused on all the good in my life right now, money aside. How I remained really excited about what the future holds and the feeling when new clients emerge from the rubble of the pandemic.
She was surprised and remarked how inspirational I was dealing with my current situation and had cheered her up with my humour. As she really wished she could think more like that, her worries are keeping her awake at night and she worries about everything at the moment. I was so surprised, that on the face of it, she was a happy young lady, with a nice partner (I find out so much when chatting), a good job and still working, albeit from home, and I inspired her? I was very flattered, yet really concerned about her happiness. So, despite the call being recorded (as they all are), I gave her my number and asked her to call me if she ever felt overwhelmed and would like to have a positive conversation or for someone simply to make her laugh and take her away from her worries for a moment.
This conversation really highlighted that literally anyone can be suffering in their own silence, and a simple open, positive conversation can make a huge difference to their day, even allowing them to speak out. I am grateful that I spoke to this young lady today. Not being a trained professional in mental health in any way, I am really glad I was open regarding how I’m dealing with things, which in turn helped her, so surprising!
I feel privileged to have made a small difference for that short moment in young person’s life today, just by being my positive, outgoing, chatty self.
I really hope she calls if she needs to.
If you are reading this and are feeling as she did, I hope you call too!
A small dose of kindness, positivity, and humour goes such a long way to making people feel a little better about what is going on in their lives.
Let’s strive to be good people.
Enjoy your day!
Sarah
07786990928
sarah@getrealclarity.com
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