I think I’m going to try to write on here every day for the foreseeable future. I realized that as I sat down to get some thoughts out of my head. I’ve been really trying to unpack my motivations today and it’s slow going.
While I was reading this afternoon, I started thinking about my recent safari in Tanzania and how epic it was. It was one of those trips that really gave me time to unwind and close a chapter of my life while attempting to open a new one. Opening this new one is proving to be quite a challenge, and I’m unsure why. I worry that my burnout will last a long time; I worry that I’ve lost the zeal I once had for the work I spent my time doing. I know I’m not alone in this feeling and I am certain that so many people have been here before but it’s always different when you end up there yourself and you never knew you would.
Anyway, my thoughts about the safari led me to start thinking about the most peaceful places in the world. I can’t quite pinpoint why safari connected to peace but it did. I did a search in Google and pulled up the World Economic Forum’s list of most and least peaceful places in the world. Naturally, Iceland is the top most peaceful country on their list for many years now. Other places that were included were Switzerland, Portugal, Canada and New Zealand. It was also no surprise that Middle Eastern nations were counted among the least peaceful. I guess the most interesting statistics I pondered a bit were the ones around the decrease in peace in the United States and the overall dip in peacefulness in the world since 2008. It also mentioned an ever widening gap between the most and least peaceful places in the world.
All this got me thinking about my life and how it relates to the global peace problem. The article highlighted that the largest drop in peace occurred in North America and they are alleging that this drop can be attributed to our most recent presidential election. Go figure. When this was mentioned, it made me think about how the past two years of my life have been difficult personally. It reminded me of the presidential campaigns, the absurdity of it all and the ensuing horror at what unfolded on election day. And it really reminded me of how hard it was to ignore the political climate of the United States and its ugly history rearing its head again.
I started to think that maybe some of my personal challenges could have been influenced by the overall climate of this country and the rest of the world. It’s hard to maintain positivity when things are feeling like they’re falling apart. But, I couldn’t possibly blame my personal difficulties on the overall climate when that did not impact my day to day decisions. I can, however, say that the most recent presidential election made me feel less optimistic about life and this colored my perception of my life, and its ups and downs.
Our minds are pretty powerful in that we can influence our thought patterns with positive, or negative, self-talk. I am finally finding my positive voice once more and it feels really good. In writing here now, I realize that my thoughts around peaceful countries link to my thoughts around how I can find peace within myself and find my path. I think this writing is helping a little.
Amita Lathigra 