A duck…

R U OK?Day is a national day of action which aims to reduce suicide by encouraging people to connect with each other & ask: “R U OK?”. R U OK?Day does not provide crisis intervention or counselling.

For crisis support call 1800 RUOKDAY (1800 7865 329)

Although this blog entry is not on the same scale as the aim of this program – I wanted to share an example of how one kind word can change someone’s day…

A duck…

I had been having a particularly bad couple of weeks… You know the ones where nothing really bad has happened and you know you should be grateful for all that you have (we all know that there is always someone worse off than you are) but you just seem to be stuck in a rut. Life is just weighing you down.

It’s all the little things that are really small and don’t mean a lot but just leaving the little rain cloud over you and then when you really think about it you just feel selfish but can’t snap out of it. It’s one of those times where you doubt yourself in many ways including as a mother. Every time something is not “right” with your child for example your 2 year old waking up 10 times the previous night – it must be due to all the millions of failings you have as a mother. Just feeling like the whole world is falling apart and in chaos/anarchy.

I had been talking to Michelle (my wonderful business partner) about how I had been struggling to even write anything as I have just been feeling that disillusioned with everything. Of course her response was, so write that! And of course, she was right…

Funnily right off the back of all of this I get a message from a friend of mine who is a first time mother with a baby similar age to mine and had no idea how I had been feeling – she was writing to thank me for a catch up we had had and she writes “You are a super mum, so organised and kind! Thank you for everything”.

Literally made me laugh out loud! All I could think was the old analogy:

Like a duck swimming – calm on the surface, chaos beneath!

I guess this message made me think about two things. Firstly, how the kind words of another person can really lift you up and make you smile, something so simple can really turn things around especially when the person is unaware of what has been happening.

Secondly, it made me realise how sometimes the way we see ourselves versus the way that other people view us can be quite different.

I had been viewing myself like Eeyore with a rain cloud over my head and it appears to her I was Rainbow Brite!

I think we all need to look around ourselves and take the time to say something nice to our friends, family – even our partners, that we just don’t often take the time to do as it can really make someone’s day. Also, perhaps sometimes we should stop being so hard on ourselves as mothers and try and see how others view us!

So now that the storm cloud has lifted I wonder who out there will take that moment from their busy schedule to say something kind to someone and actually verbalise it rather than just thinking it as we so often do! Who knows what their day/week/month has been like – you might just make their day!