Kia ora te whanau o te kotuku,

Maintenance of a positive outlook and taking individual responsibility for your own wellbeing is critically important. We do need the help of others but I also believe that on a daily basis the attitude that we take is critical to how we choose to react to what happens throughout the day. To expect no difficult moments is an unreasonable expectation. It is part of life.

Happy and unhappy are emotions they are not estanding stills. They will move on. In the good moments and the tough moments, expecting that this is part of life is a healthy mindset. If moments of unhappiness linger on then we may need the help of others, but a temporary emotion is just that and we should not make a permanent decision from what is a temporary state of being.

How can we minimise how hard we work, and therefore the energy we expend daily? It can be as simple as establishing good routines and habits that support success and wellbeing. It could be that you already do have a number of good habits and routines but look to add one more thing, something that requires zero talent but supports developing good ways of working.

What can you do? Plan the week ahead each week, once you have made a promise to yourself by writing it down, stick to it. That’s being honest and true to yourself and will allow you to build confidence in yourself. Pack your bag for the day ahead the night before. Carry a drink bottle to drink water as your preferred fluid. Do some regular exercise. Turn off all electronics half an hour before going to bed. Try to establish a regular sleep pattern – quality sleep is our best form of re-energising and having the ability to concentrate and focus for longer. Go to bed at the same time get up at the same time. Have breakfast at the same time, brush our teeth at the same time and leave the house at the same time to ensure that we are always at least five minutes early so that we are never late. All these small actions create routine and reduce the thinking we need to do because we are now on autopilot for the daily must-do’s. It leaves more energy for the challenging stuff that will face us during our day.

Anime sana in corpore sano (ASICS) is a Latin phrase meaning a healthy mind in a healthy body. Let this be a focus for this term, striving for personal excellence in taking care of yourself is an attitude of mind and a good habit to get into. It will be busy and it will have challenges. Do as much as you can to not let the day run you, but plan and take charge of your day. Please remember that we will have moments that are tough and we can choose how we act.

The following example is beyond what I am suggesting and leans towards the extreme, but it does reinforce that even in the toughest moments we do have a choice.

This 92-year-old, petite, well-poised, and proud woman, who is fully dressed each morning by eight o’clock, with her hair fashionably coiffed and makeup perfectly applied, even though she is legally blind, moved to a nursing home yesterday. Her husband of 70 years recently passed away, making the move necessary.

After many hours of waiting patiently in the lobby of the nursing home, she smiled sweetly when told her room was ready. As she maneuvered her walker to the elevator, a nurse provided a visual description of her tiny room, including the eyelet sheets that had been hung on her window. “I love it,” she stated with the enthusiasm of an eight-year-old having just been presented with a new puppy.

“Mrs Jones, you haven’t seen the room. “That doesn’t have anything to do with it”, she replied. “Happiness is something you decide on ahead of time. Whether I like my room or not doesn’t depend on how the furniture is arranged, it’s how I arrange my mind. I already decided to love it. It’s a decision I make every morning when I wake up. I have a choice; I can spend the day in bed recounting the difficulty I have with the parts of my body that no longer work, or get out of bed and be thankful for the ones that do. Each day is a gift, and as long as my eyes open I’ll focus on the new day and all the happy memories I’ve stored away, just for this time in my life.”

She went on to explain, “Old age is like a bank account, you withdraw what you’ve put in. So, my advice to you would be to deposit a lot of happiness in the bank account of memories. Thank you for your part in filling my memory bank. I am still depositing.”

Nga mihi nui
Gary Moore

Assessment Calendar: Term 3, Week 2
Monday, 2 August
12 Travel US 24729
13 Geography AS 91431

Friday, 6 August
11 English AS 90855, AS 90857
12 Art Design AS 90710
12 Art AS 91311
12 Art AS 91316