A New Day

Every day is a new day, a day to start with a fresh pair of eyes. I can’t even imagine how many people just rolled their eyes and thought ‘easier said than done’. It is easy to say, but let’s think about it for a while. If you started each day with the worries from yesterday who is it going to benefit? How will it help you? Most of all what will you achieve? Let’s look at life like it’s a giant jigsaw puzzle. Each hurdle, obstacle, bump in the road (come on we know I like that phrase) is a different piece of the puzzle. How we approach this puzzle, and how we tackle finding where each piece fits can show us how the days are going. One step at a time.

It is a new day, time to get working hard again and put the puzzle pieces in place one by one.

Remember if it doesn’t fit one way, turn it round till it fits. It’s the only way. Keep going, one piece at a time. Some days you may only find one piece will get put in place, other days more. Then there are days like today.

A day like today when you wake thinking ‘I’ve got this’ but then your stomach starts churning, so you sit, and breathe. In and out, in and out. At least that bit is still working. Now to check for the legs. Stand up, and the room spins, so is that the legs or the head not working? Stay sitting down and try again in five minutes. After several failed attempts you manage to crawl into another room and just lay there on the floor, breathing in an out, reminding yourself not to stop. Worried that if you don’t remind yourself to breathe you won’t do it. After what feels like an eternity of attempts to sit up and realising the room is no longer spinning you give yourself a little cheer as you begin to successfully get on with the day.

When faced with a large task there are a few important things to remember. In order to complete a puzzle you must remember to eat, only then the stomach churns more, wondering what will be safe? Bread, that should be ok surely. Let’s stick with bread. As the stomach churns more you realise over the next half an hour that bread was not a safe option.

Still turning this puzzle piece round in the grip on your fingers trying to make it fit, beginning to confirm your thoughts that this is definitely going to be a tricky one today. You don’t give in though, you know you have got to keep trying. Nothing will ever get completed if you don’t keep trying.

Standing there you look down at your outstretched hands. Just as you thought, shaking and sweating. Only now you start to question yourself on how you’ll complete anything like this; figuring that keeping busy will be a sensible step. Keeping busy in the heat however requires you to drink. Your poor stomach.

This puzzle piece is a lot more challenging that you thought, so much so you begin to wonder if it actually belongs here. Or is it a rogue piece? Still persist you will. Let’s try again, this time though let’s try and see if it’ll fit after talking, some thinking and making a plan. After all if you plan for any eventuality then it has to work. Right?

A plan, reassurance, and a little boost of confidence and look at that. That little puzzle piece slotted straight in its place. The churning feeling in your stomach eased, and those shaking hands? They’ve settled too. What was it about that piece that made it so hard?

Now onto the next piece, do you think two pieces in a day? Should you do it? After the success of the other piece the motivation and energy to attempt another piece is brimming, and so you go for it.

The next one is a tricky piece, it has lots of notches on it, and you need to make sure they all line up to make it work in your puzzle. This looks like a scary piece to fit, so you better get it over with. Fear can make pieces seem harder than they need to be, like a shadow in the dark. Once the light shines on them though the reality is they are small and harmless. It is just one piece, how much damage can it cause?

Turn and twist, can it work? Looks like it should. But wait hold on, what’s that? Just as you thought you had it, and extra notch appeared. Another hurdle to overcome, another challenge, another set of obstacles. This isn’t where it belongs after all. The frustration builds up, the tiredness sets in. The determination to get this right despite extra hurdles starts to build inside. So you keep going.

Careful now as you prise it out of that space, you don’t want to……. oh you did it. You shouldn’t have pulled it so hard, or got so angry with it. Now look what’s happened.

How many pieces came out with it?

How far back did you fall this time?

As the day comes to an end you pick up the pieces that fell. Are you picking them up alone? You don’t have too. Everyone needs a helping hand sometimes. What would happen if you asked for someone to help collect those pieces that fell? What can you do to prepare for another day tomorrow?

This is the advantage of a new day, each day is a new opportunity to face the puzzle again, to try again and have another go. To not give up and to hold on. You are not alone. Have hope and believe in yourself that any puzzle can be completed no matter how many times the pieces fall to the ground.