Take a moment, breathe, perhaps a little deeper than usual

7th April 2020

I’m going to tell you something you already know, bear with me. Where we are now, this will pass. The constant we all face is change.

Sometimes it’s a change we enjoy, a new apartment, puppy or a particularly good portioned surprise slice of cake, (You can tell what’s on my mind) or the change that feels more like a challenge, an obstacle that we have to overcome, a happening that forces us to grow (Yes, cake will do the same in a different way). Today, we all face many obstacles of different sizes, some bigger than others, yet all shaped by our perception and experiences. A small challenge to one, perhaps not being able to Ski in St Moritz can produce the same level of stress in some people as worrying about the ability to pay your rent in another. The magic ingredient that’s particularly pertinent at this time is resilience.

Resilience is something that has to be built, the more experiences you address outside of your comfort zone, the stronger your foundations will be forged and the more resilient to change and challenge you will become. Today we’re all being given a crash course in resilience training. The challenges that we all now face, will, shape and mold us. How we are shaped is up to us and the decisions that we choose. If I need to make a somewhat challenging decision, I use a particularly useful visual tool.

This is the way I describe it –

Imagine that at the moment you come into existence, some kindly being gives you a blank canvas, stating that this is yours and yours alone, no one else may mark, change or manipulate it in any way. They then instruct you on how it works. Akin to every time a painter chooses a new brush or colour and begins the markings of an image; every time you make a decision and act, you permanently create a mark on your canvas. Over the years, the vision of your life is built on your canvas and becomes more elaborate, displaying the times you elevated your thinking to abilities that astounding even yourself and the times you succumb to anger, greed or any other unbecoming behaviour to sentient life. The way your canvas will look throughout your life is down to your decisions alone. How do you want your canvas to look? Imagine that along with everyone else’s, that it’s displayed in a ‘life gallery’, how would you want yours to look/feel?

The next few weeks/months are going to challenge us all and that’s why now more than ever it’s important that we reflect on the vision we have of whom we want to become and the image we want to create. There’s another word that should carry more weight now, possibly the amount it should have always held, community. Now maybe a time when most of us are taking stock of our tribes, whether they be our families, friends, neighbours, nations or other forms of collective belonging. It’s important that we consider how we’re giving and supporting those around us.

Like many, I feel that it’s particularly important for local communities to support local businesses, your butcher, baker, coffee house, or even a small family-run marketing and media firm. Supporting local businesses first means you’re also supporting local economies, fragile concepts at this time. Our Kyoto team are creating plans to build platforms to support traditional makers that are having one of their most challenging times in their hundreds of years histories. In Sheffield our team is concentrating on community confidence, offering free support in the form of webinars to business owners and marketing managers, helping them to navigate these turbulent times.

If you feel you could benefit from some free support, please don’t hesitate to contact me, future promises of cake are appreciated, (if it wasn’t for Hiit training…),

Stay safe,

Johnny
Mantra Media

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