So here we are, 2023, and if we’re honest, it is not much different. We still have all the messy social issues that 2022 spawned. Only now, we don’t have the festive period to look forwards to. Put simply the next few weeks are probably going to feel a bit shit. This bump back to normality is never fun, and before we even begin to toss around phrases like Blue Monday and seasonal depression, we all knew this was coming.
This is the strange thing about being human, is that we pretty much have all the information in our hands, yet we are always surprised when it happens in front of us on schedule! I will level with you, this slump is never fun, and there isn’t a magical cure to push it aside. However, I can share some advice that may help ease the burden of its passage.
A lifetime ago, I was lured by the blinding lights of reality TV. I was pushed through the casting process, which took months. I was told by so many people how amazing I was, and what a great fit for the show I would be. This went on for so long until I made it to the final stages of the process. By this point you have been so hyped up by production, casting assistants, talent managers, and runners that you believe that it is a done deal. The idea that TV will make your dreams come true still holds so much power for so many people.
The final stage involved a dry run of the show over three days. This was a tough 72 hours which completely wore me out, but I believed I had shown the best sides of myself. I was assured that I had done a great job and that they would be in touch over the next few days. Remember, nothing was ever a certainty, but the people around me kept telling me how amazing I had been, how brilliant I was, I believed it was going to happen.
Well inevitably, it didn’t happen. A few days later the call to say they weren’t moving ahead with me came. The comedown from this call was monstrous. Life felt black and white, all the colour had gone. After the shining colour of TV land, real life felt dull, morose, and horrifically pedestrian. It took me a while to get over this blow - which with the gift of hindsight would have been a bad situation for me anyway. The only way I got over the dull back to the reality of it all, was to keep going.
Over the space of a few weeks, I was able to bring the colour back to life, by not catastrophising the things that had happened, and by plotting small pleasures into my route map.
It is very plain advice, but life might seem less than fun after the festive period, but getting on with life, and bringing pleasure into your daily routine from today onwards, can help so much with the abrupt way we have been thrust back into reality…
Shot by Ruth Pechey
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