What positive thought are you holding on to?

[ChristmasinJune]

I could do with a bit of positivity if you could share yours please?

Up until the beginning of this month I was positive and upbeat, followed the good news threads and thoughts like "it'll all look brighter in the spring" and "there'll be breakthrough medical treatments along any day now" kept me going.

In the last month though I've lost all my positivity, it seems to be bad news after bad news and I feel like I can't see an end to it.

So if you have a positive thought that keeps you going and keeps you smiling, no matter how trivial, could you share it please and help bring some light at the end of the tunnel?

Thank you.

The WHO thinks the pandemic will over in 2 years. A few years after that we will talk about the lockdowns as something that happened and we moved on from. By the time my children are adults we won't even think about it. Humans have overcome hardships before and come back strong, we will do so again.

@KitKatastrophe

The WHO thinks the pandemic will over in 2 years. A few years after that we will talk about the lockdowns as something that happened and we moved on from. By the time my children are adults we won't even think about it. Humans have overcome hardships before and come back strong, we will do so again.

This for sure

It will be a memory one day

This too shall pass

I've found it helpful to not put a timescale on when things will happen. Because we can guess, but we don't know. Nothing ever stays the same -- bad things end (just like good things). I know that at some point in the future, the current unpleasantness will be over.

I also think that spending less time on a) news websites and b) this board might help. Know the facts, assess your risk, but also reduce your exposure to negative and in some cases downright untrue information/opinions. Honestly, it does help.

Thank you!

The thought that my 8 year old will only have very vague memories of it is comforting

Not really one positive thought, but holding onto the fact I've got some lovely family and friends who are out there, and my pets. Giving myself something to look forward to if I'm having a bad day, planning little things to look, a walk with a friend, buying a treat - book, magazine, flowers, simple things for the garden from Lidl, a plant for a pot to add colour, more recently snow drop bulbs as I love seeing them.

@NastyBlouse you're right I had a long break from news and these type of threads in March/April and it may well be time to do the same again!

As much as they bug me sometimes, I would never have had the opportunity to spend this much time with my kids. Both dh and I work FT and whilst balancing homeworking/home edding was tough, it was, after all, time together.

Even now they are back at school I get to do the school runs. Reading in the week. Meet their little friends at pick up/walking home etc. Never had any of that.

Our weekends are spent not fretting about where we are going to go/who we are going to see. We just spend time the four of us.

Whilst furlough was stressful (for various reasons), it was a long time that DH & I would never normally have together due to work where we'd get one day a week.

I'm also remaining positive that having these restrictions now might mean I can spend a little bit of xmas day with my parents

This was in the news recently. www.aa.com.tr/en/health/japanese-firm-invents-uv-lamp-killing-coronavirus/1981243
Science is finding new medicines and treatments all the time, a lot more is known about the virus that before. Progress is being made.

That none of my friends and family have had covid and that after everything that life's thrown at me, now going through a pandemic for 7 months of my pregnancy and mostly kept my sanity that I can be very strong when I need to.

That the bluebells will come out in Spring....

That i can avoid trick and treat this year....flip side no firework display.

Off to LUSH to stock up on bath items.

I have a 2 pronged approach to dealing with this the first is to accept that this virus maybe disruptive to out lives for a longish period so for the next 6 to 18 months. I hope that this isn’t the case but having this time frame in mind helps to prevent feeling crushed when things start to get worse again, like now!

Secondly I try to really appreciate what is good in my life right now. I have a cosy home, a lovely husband, we are secure financially for the foreseeable future and have some savings. Mostly our families and friends are ok as well which is a blessing.

Then day to day I just try to focus on the good stuff. It could be a nice bath with lovely products, or a quiet half hour with my book with a slice of cake and tea, hiking at the weekend, movie nights, even just appreciating the changing seasons. Yes things won’t be the same this year but it’s possible to find new creative ways to celebrate which will be lovely.

I am also setting new goals for myself, I’m out of work and so using this time to reset my life, to get fitter, learn some new skills And brush up on old ones while the pressure is off as I don’t see me finding work for a while yet.

It’s all about mindset for me, to try and see it as an opportunity as much as possible. However I think though that we all have different circumstances, a friend of mine has had her fertility treatment continuously postponed since March which has left her in bits. Another friend is really struggling in his marriage at the moment. Lots of people don’t have any financial security, might be unsafe at home or going hungry so I think it’s also important to be mindful of that and to help where you can without letting it drag you under.

Ultimately it will pass and life will return to normal in time. As a pp poster said the worst should be over within the next 18 months.

• Reminding myself that this is not permanent. I have been keeping a record of this pandemic e.g. screenshotting significant news alerts on my phone and writing a journal. I find that that helps keep me in the mindset that this is temporary and something we will look back on and talk about in the future. We will look back and remember how weird it was to have to wear masks and have hand sanitiser in shop entrances, and remember the Thursday NHS clap for carers and how unique this situation was.

• I'm a scientist but not involved in virology, but knowing that there are the world's best scientists all working on one single disease makes me feel very optimistic and hopeful. A small example of this is a lot of journals are usually behind a paywall; however, lots of journals have made all of their COVID-19 papers open access, just a small reminder of how science is really coming together to study about this common enemy. The speed at which they have discovered things is amazing. For example, they were able to sequence the virus' genome so quickly, several decades ago that would not have been possible.

• Even though Christmas will be very different this year, there still will be a Christmas. A Christmas dinner, Christmas films and Christmas music is enough to make me looking forward to December. :)

@healthanxious I'm a scientist but not involved in virology, but knowing that there are the world's best scientists all working on one single disease makes me feel very optimistic and hopeful. A small example of this is a lot of journals are usually behind a paywall; however, lots of journals have made all of their COVID-19 papers open access, just a small reminder of how science is really coming together to study about this common enemy. The speed at which they have discovered things is amazing. For example, they were able to sequence the virus' genome so quickly, several decades ago that would not have been possible.

I just wanted to echo this. I know a couple of scientists socially who are working on the genetics and a vaccine. They are top people, I know they aren’t given much credit in the press when some sensationalist story comes out, I know they’re not politically motivated either. I know they’re downhearted at the protests. The problem is a bastarding big one. It is hopeful overall, though. It will just take time.

Thanks everybody, I'm definitely enjoying the positivity