Dear readers,

LPG states that they are happy to hear from any old person, I mean older person who has something to say, so I thought I would offer my opinion today. 

This is the time of the year when life is at its coldest in so many ways.  The weather is doing its best to make us all feel miserable because of how much it is costing us to keep warm enough to do anything else.  The darkness always reminds me of the future, and that equates to the unknown; something that I believe we should all spend a really limited amount of time worrying about.  Too much thought about that can really depress at the most depressing part of the year.

Historically, winter tends to be a time to stay home in the warm and that is a really comforting thing to do when older fingers and toes get to the stage when, for days they never feel comfortably warm.  But we have just been through a year when we have been banned from going anywhere and I think that there are still so many different opinions (scientific, official, social and personal) that, for some of us, opening the front door feels like a risk.

 In a world where more and more people live on their own, day-to-day life can often mean not seeing anyone for days at a time and living through a time when it is ‘healthier’ not to get too close to other people does not help. 

I think that I have managed to paint a negative picture so far, but the positive thing is that there is always something you can do about it. 

This is the time of year for planning rather than just thinking and that requires what I call formulation tools (pen and paper, computer and keyboard, a tape recorder, or someone on the other end of a telephone or video call). 

Once you have at least one of the above sets of implements to hand, there are four questions to answer each morning…

1, How would life be different if I were perfectly happy?

2, What is the first thing I need to do to get me from where I am to where I want to be?

3, What did I do yesterday to get closer to my goal?

4, What is the next step?

If the answer to question 3 is, ‘nothing’, question 4 still applies.

I hope my strategy helps…

PY, Penge

PY has found an online quiz to help you determine just how lonely you are and a few other ideas about how to get through it all…

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