How well resourced do you feel?

I’d love to ask you - How well resourced do you feel?

This thought came up for me over the Christmas holidays as my son was talking about the differences between his old school and his new one. One of the things he mentioned was how the staff in his new school office were more cheerful and less grumpy than in his old school! I explained to him that in his new school, there were four people and in his old (bigger) school there were only two - they were under resourced.

And often, that’s how we feel as individuals. We are pulled between responsibilities, relationships, time constraints, financial juggling.  It can feel like our resources of time, energy and money are constantly slipping through our fingers and there is never quite enough of any of them. 

And what can we do about that, really? Isn’t just beyond our control?

Like many of my questions, my approach is often about shifting our thinking first. When we feel like it’s out of our hands and that resources are finite, it’s really hard to see how things can change. But what if, in shifting perspective and starting to view more things as resources, we see that we actually do have more power than we think.

And the answer is often the same in any of the areas where we feel lack: connection and community. Our greatest resource is each other.

In this world where we are encouraged to spend, eat, scroll or drink our way out of lonelieness, exhaustion, discomfort or unwanted feelings, the rebellious act can be to choose community and connection instead.

When we feel like we don’t have enough time, is there anything that we are choosing that sucks our time away? Are we priding ourselves on how much we can handle, rather than asking for help?

For every overworked and overwrought person, there is another who lacks a sense of usefulness and purpose. How can we support each other?

Of course, all of this thinking needs to come with a healthy dose of compassion. We are living in wildly changing times, and our minds and bodies can often struggle to keep up. But when we think like this, we are no longer disempowered by our situations; we see that we have options.