The power of one little word

Writing invitation: Use a definition for inspiration for your writing

Thriving -  the psychological state in which people experience a sense of both vitality and learning. 

Thriving individuals are growing, developing, and energised rather than feeling stagnated or depleted.

I found this explanation of thriving from an article How to Thrive When Everything Feels Terrible

"Thrive" is my One Little Word for 2020. Little did I know in January what kind of a year 2020 would turn out to be. I am amazed how one word, an intention for a year, a focus for the time being, a reminder on the back of the mind, this one little word turns out to be a powerful source for finding strength when needed. 

In my mind thriving is easy when the weather is good, light and color brighten the day that stretches out with ample time to do enjoyable activities in the company of lovely people. Yet the word is most supportive when the conditions are opposite. 

With the virus situation creating doom-like feeling in the world, and the second wave like a circle closing tighter and tighter, the November days getting darker and darker with only few hours of daylight if even that with grey rainclouds shadowing everything,  and the nature turning into brown decaying mush, it would be so easy to go hide, to give up, to soak in sadness. Of course I have moments when I worry, and things happening around me that affect my every day life cause stress to crawl up my throat and my heart crunch. Occasionally a wish to howl and growl and bawl surfaces. On some afternoons I am so tired that I land on a sofa like a rag doll. My OLW nudges me to wake up early, exercise and stick to my mindfulness practice, to smile to people, to look for what is well, to lean on compassion, to celebrate the successes and joys and to grow my gratitude. 

I thrive with my students. This week we generated, evaluated and chose questions for further inquiry about children's rights, and we had a video call with  a group of children who are refugees from Nagarno Karabah conflict. My own learning fuels me. I am nerd enough to watch webinars on Friday evening or join a virtual conference on Saturday and I usually have a stack of PD books at home and another one at school ready for reading and rereading.  Sometimes the joy comes from non academic activities. One of the students brought a design for decorating our classroom door, and I let go of my carefully crafted daily plan to allow the children to cut, paste, draw and colour for as long as they needed.

I thrive in the company of my friends, like this week: a midday walk together,  an afternoon visit to a gallery, an early morning book exchange. Reminding each other to take care of our body and mind and soul has become part of our daily interaction. The kind words from my writing friends in the virtual world caress me. 

I thrive when I do things that make me happy, that fill my cup - reading, walking, writing. I finished two short story books by Estonian authors and started Christina Dalcher's Vox. Besides my morning walk before school that contributes to my daily step count, I seize the opportunities to walk during daylight, having a walking meeting during a school day or going for a photo walk on a weekend. Yesterday we had a virtual inservice day and in between the google meets I went for a walk. The light snow allowed to create some black and white photos without any filters. I have written this year more than ever before, blog posts and journal entries, snippets as part of virtual writing workshop, and some actual texts from start to end. participating in a writing retreat and writing marathon has helped me to see that I can create hours of time for writing if I choose to. Starting my Saturday with writing this blog post is a good start for a weekend. 

Thriving is a lot about the choices I deliberately make - how I spend my time, how I react to things that happen, how I speak to and about people, what I pay attention to, what I let go, and what do I feed my body and mind with. "Thrive" has been a magnificent word for 2020. I am already thinking what might my OLW for next year be. 

What about you? Do you have OLW? How has it served you? What might your next year's OLW be?

A screen shot of my yesterday's pics on my instagram account.