TOO MANY TABS OPEN

MONDAY MUSINGS - So much to say, about not much!

In all honesty, I’m struggling with my writing at the moment. Mainly because my brain just feels like it’s got too many tabs open at the moment. At work, I have been designing a new 8-week course for my patients, and tomorrow I will deliver week 5 to my first group.

Creating this course has meant a lot more written work than usual for me in my day to day job as a nurse. It has meant doing research, making decisions, coordinating external guests and simply learning along the way - drawing on both life and career experience in creating the content for my course. In creating this course, I’ve spent a lot of time writing, and even more time on Canva!

That has been my focus since the beginning of the year. That being said, my own writing and projects have had to fall to the wayside somewhat. I’ve taken work home most nights and opened my laptop most weekends.

The thing about creating content like this, is you end up learning so much from the actual delivery - you can make all the content in the world, but until you really see how it lands and understand how it is received and processed, you never really know if it works.

Having completed four weeks now, I’ve adapted, switched, and added to so much of my original plan. I’ve listened to my patients, sat with them and tried to best understand their needs and how I can best meet those needs. So the work has felt never ending.

But I cannot complain, because I’ve really enjoyed this journey, and I feel like I’ve created something special that will really benefit my patients, who are all living with life limiting illnesses.

The truth be told - it’s been hard for me to come on here tonight and write this - I’ve only just put the final touches to my content for tomorrow and my brain feels too scrambled to write anything else more personal to share with you! However, I’m nearly 1 year into posting every Monday - a pact I made with my sister last May, and what that has taught me, is that showing up is really important. Building habits and keeping promises to yourself that help you reach your goals.

So here I am - saying nothing really - but nevertheless, showing up!

I felt the same last week, and that I had nothing to say - but then I was quickly surprised by how much I did end up having to say about just sitting on the grass in my garden for a while. Sometimes you just have to write something, anything, just to keep the spark alive.

Part of what I’m covering in my session tomorrow, which is based around ‘feeling good’ - is absolutely sharing that concept of what I talked about in my post last week ‘Listening to the birds and not the news’ - encouraging them to get outside, use multiple different kinds of ‘sound’ as therapy, and practice mindfulness in nature. The world feels heavy for me, but for them they are carrying the burden of their illness, in addition to all that ‘worldly’ heaviness that we all cannot avoid.

I feel so lucky that I’m actually learning so much along side my patients, which is a lovely thing, and in turn gives me broader perspective. I wanted to talk to them about that concept of ‘Listening to the birds, and not the news’ and encourage them to experience the temporary relief I felt from the world, whilst sat in my garden last weekend, with only the sounds of nature. I tried to search for the image I saw that inspired that post - which was the quote simply written in biro, as I wanted to include it in one of my presentation slides to explore this concept with my patients.

In my search, instead I came across something even better. I found a poem entitled “Listen to the birds, not the news” written by Alistair Muirhead who describes himself as ‘collector of stories and seeker of meaning’ and a ‘Poet by passion’ here on Substack.

So today, I wanted to share his poem with you, as tomorrow I will also share this poem with my patients (Thank you Alistair!) because I think there’s a message in these words that has great capacity to offer us all some comfort and something to remember when the world feels overwhelming or like me, you simply have too many tabs open in your brain right now.

Thanks for being here - I’ll try and do better next week!

Listen to the Birds, Not the News

by Alastair Muirhead

“The world is too loud, a ceaseless hum of faraway disasters, floodwaters that will never reach your door, fires you cannot smother, grief you cannot hold in your hands.

You are one small body, meant to move between familiar trees, to notice the shadows shifting under leaves, to hear the clear song of a wren threading through morning air.

It was never your task to carry the weight of the whole spinning globe. Let the earth turn without you for a while.

Look up. The birds are not watching the skies fall. They are not waiting for answers. They sing.”