 I enjoy watching the tennis. This weekend the Australian Open finals delivered some brilliant matches and valuable life lessons. Australian, Ash Barty, won the women's singles final after being 5-1 behind in the second set. She came back to win that set.
Spanish player, Rafael Nadal, lost the first two sets then won the next three to win the men's singles final. He had just returned from an ankle injury that he thought would end his career, he had Covid19 in December, and he was 10 years older than his opponent. Even if you don't like tennis, you could learn a lot from these two. They both showed incredible grit by never giving up, even when the odds were stacked against them.
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 I have this gorgeous but kooky rescue dog called Kevin. He does this weird thing where he looks at your reflection instead of at you. In the picture, he is looking at me in the bumper of the car. I'm sitting right next to him, but he's not looking at me - he's looking at my reflection. He does it in mirrors, windows and any reflective surface. I think we're a bit like Kevin sometimes too - we look at life through our screens and that's not real life, that's just a reflection of it. So let's get off our devices and actually talk to each other, get outside and do stuff, instead of watching other people live their lives on social media.
  
There's a saying that's attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt, do one thing every day that scares you. You don't have to jump out of a plane or hold a snake. We all have fears:
fear of spiders fear of snakes fear of what people will think of you fear of making a fool of yourself fear of public speaking fear of failure... You learn to be brave by facing your fears, not by avoiding them. You can feel the fear and do it afraid. Some of my favourite memories involved a degree of fear - zip lining in Thailand, watching whales miles from the coast, exploring crowded markets in Cambodia, tasting exotic dishes in Bali, climbing the Sydney harbour bridge. Most personal growth happens outside our comfort zone so be brave!  I've seen the "Look up" advertisements on a couple of buses recently so I decided to find out what it was all about. The Look Up movement is based on research by neuroscientist, Dr Fiona Kerr. We spend so much of our lives looking down that we miss out on really living. The Look Up campaign encourages us to put down our phones and look up, to engage with the environment and those around us. According to their website, "scientists have discovered looking up is good for our brains, our bodies, our relationships, and our shared experience of the world." You can find out more at www.lookup.org.au. I took the photo above on my morning walk today. Before you reach for your phone, look up!
 I have a confession to make - I'm addicted to The Voice. I have loved watching the All Stars who have come back after not turning a chair in the Live Auditions in the past or being eliminated during the show. It shows such resilience and strength of character to get back up after a rejection. When they got a 'no" they didn't give up, they worked harder and came back again. All of them had improved from their first appearance on the show. So, just remember - no doesn't mean not ever, just not today!
 I have a confession to make - for most of my life I was completely unaware of white privilege because I was born into it. I grew up with people from various different cultural backgrounds and only ever saw them as equals, but that doesn't mean that their experience of growing up in Australia was equal to mine. I took it for granted that flesh coloured bandaids matched my skin tone, that the people in the television shows I watched looked like me and that most of the books I read were about people just like me. I wish someone had explained this to me when I was younger.
The following information is from an article called 10 Things You Should Know About White Privilege (https://www.sbs.com.au/nitv/article/2016/10/13/10-things-you-should-know-about-white-privilege). White privilege means that you are born into the racial 'norm.' A privilege where you can;
This animation shows two methods to deal with negative thinking - a life skill everyone needs!!! |
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