Getting worn out with tips on how to stay on top of the world

Country Living with Francis Farragher

I’m nearly at my wits’ end with columnists and commentators giving out advice as to how we should try and eke out all the positive things in life.  It’s something that nearly get you down on a bad day when no matter how hard you search, there doesn’t seem very much to be positive about.

If it’s not one thing it’s another . . . not enough hours in the day to get all the tasks completed . . . too much use of the credit to leave left anything left over for sweets . . . and the realisation that the joints are getting that little bit less flexible with each passing moon.

In the really darker days of the pandemic back in the early summer of 2020, I remember a quite logical article in the BBC Future site, giving a very practical guide as to how we should stay even ever so slightly on the positive side of the ‘how you feel’ graph.

Pleasant distractions, meditation, reframing situations (now that’s one to figure out), focusing on smaller happy things, keeping a little journal of things that make us feel good, putting limits on social media and bad news, as well as getting out into the fresh air and taking exercise.

In the middle of all that, the article – written by a William Park – one of his slightly paradoxical tips was to get obsessive about being positive or happy. Now, that one stumped me, but maybe there was a nugget of wisdom there somewhere.

The central theme of that little gem of worldly wisdom is that you could wear yourself out trying to be happy without ever succeeding, which I presume could you leave you in one rotten bad humour.

For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.

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