Our new dog was a bit nervous out and about in the countryside and on the beach and rocks when he first arrived.

But every time I take him out, I show him he can do more than he thinks. Then he goes and experiments and explores these new territories and capabilities, growing in confidence and skill each trip out.

Doing things outside in the fresh air, that gets us active in some form, is proven do to wonders for both our physical and mental health.

Also finding something in these environments that stretches, pushes or scares us a little bit, can really help to compliment these pass times in terms of our personal well being.

As a Nation, viewing the hugely successful series the Blue Planet 2, left many of us at the end, acutely aware of the devastating effect plastic is having on our oceans and sea life.

It has been suggested that every year, around 8 million metric tons of plastic waste enters the ocean, where it can prove fatal to marine life.

This plastic not only pollutes the oceans, but it also contaminates and kills many of the creatures that live in and around it.

Whether its sea birds getting caught in plastic bags and drowning or ingesting plastic mistaking it for food, to whales and dolphins getting caught in fishing nets and dying, the massive variation of plastic waste in our seas is what some scientist say to be ‘the most significant welfare threat of human origin in the ocean’.

The good news is people have not only been made aware of these facts, but are actively doing something about it as a result.

Its been very apparent to me visiting Pembrokeshire this time around that people are becoming much more individually proactive in helping resolve this issue, by actively picking up plastic waste that has been washed up on shore during their coastal walks along the beaches.

Now, I recognise in the great scheme of a global issue, it may appear a pointless exercise to pick up rubbish that tomorrow will be replaced with an equal, if not larger amount of plastic waste.

I for one was one of those who felt these coastal housekeepers where fighting a losing battle and wasting their time.

Because it’s easy to think of the sea as divided up into oceans, but really its one mass of water interconnected and what we do here in the UK effects all the oceans globally.

Likewise anything we can do to help combat this issue will also help globally rather than just locally.

And even if it doesn’t make a dent in the overall issue, it can certainly make a difference to the immediate wildlife and conservation of our local areas.

For someone like myself who loves being by the sea, I want to get involved with helping with this clear up project, however small and insignificant that may appear on the surface.

I recognise that until we work as a collective it will be impossible to resolve the overall issue, but as an individual I’ve come to understand I can still stand for something that I believe is important and in the process make a difference to maybe some sea creatures that may otherwise have needlessly perished had I not picked up that bag or that fishing net.

And it doesn’t have to mean going out of our way or being a Eco martyr.

We can even combine the process with something we are doing anyway, whether that’s walking the dog or getting the kids out of the house.

And it maybe we just collect one piece of rubbish up on a particular day, because that one piece may make the difference between the life and death of one of our ocean creatures.

And this can also serve as a symbiotic relationship.

Not just in the obvious environmental relationship, but one of a more personal nature.

Much of the mental health issues we see today like anxiety, depression, self confidence and self-esteem issues just to mention just a few, stems a lot from thinking about ourselves, what we have and what we do not have. What we are doing with our lives compared to others, or what we had and what we have lost.

We spend hours in self or therapeutic analysis looking at ourselves and where it all went wrong and what interventions or methods we can use to try and become someone we would rather be.

And much of it just seems to keep us stuck. Going round and round in circles jumping from one panacea to the next guru for a solution to being who we think we should, or rather be.

But sometimes the answer is out there and not with us.

Sometimes we can find the solutions we have been searching for for years, not inside our heads, but out there helping to solve even bigger problems than who we believe we are – which at times seems all encompassing!

It may seem like avoidance and distraction therapy and counter intuitive but what many of us lack is a feeling of purpose, of growth and of contribution in our everyday lives that is often a route cause of so many mental health issues today.

And being part of a bigger problem doesn’t have to be an epic event, where we give up all our worldly belongings and join Green Peace.

We can start by just being part of a ‘micro bigger problem movement’!

For me for example, I decided to combine my normal beach combing and rock hoping antics, but this time, along the way I collected bits of plastic on route.

And it doesn’t have to be a chore.

Make it fun and personal to you. This is about personal development, not personal degradation!

On one trip, I came across a lobster pot with ropes and plastic netting trailing off it which served no end of entertainment for someone like me who loves a little physical and mental challenge.

Just cutting it all free from the rocks was an operation, then man handling the surprisingly heavy weight of a lobster pot pull of netting and ropes over the rocks proved an interesting and logistical feat.

Then I used some of the rope to create a tow rope to drag my beach bounty up the beach like a weighted sledge.

And the cherry on the cake……I later used the lobster pot as a grill which my dad and I spent some quality father and son time foraging, making fires and then cooking bacon and sausages on!

Again I appreciate this is my idea of fun is not yours, but you get the idea.

And as the saying goes, one person’s rubbish is another one treasure.

When I got to the area where the rubbish is deposited on one of my trips, I got talking to a couple of ladies about what I was doing and my excitement regarding my Lobster pot BBQ and the opportunity for upcycling this oceanic rubbish, meant it wasn’t long before I was cutting free a large fishing net down for them to use as a Hammock or alternatively a plant trellis for their new garden nursery.

And funny enough it made me feel good, because it had all the ingredients I mentioned early – a personal purpose, a sense of growth and contribution to an area that is so important to me to preserve.

We can all make a small difference to a pandemic issue and even have fun doing it.

(And if it all seems pointless read this little starfish story.)
https://eventsforchange.wordpress.com/…/the-starfish-story…/

Maybe being part of a bigger problem could be the therapeutic intervention you are searching for, or maybe not, but for me these little excursion definitely prove to be environ-mentally friendly.

I recently acquired some old ‘patinaed’ (aka a bit rusty), industrial lamp shades which It is now my intention to sell.

However, because they are old, before I can advertise my wares at the market, I need to buy new light bulb holders and flexes to insure they are safe for installation.

So on Friday evening I double clicked myself on the information super highway to peruse for electrical wholesalers near to me who may stock the sort of fittings I am looking for.

There was several boutiques in the area, but only one was willing to trade on a Saturday, but as luck would have it their websites exhibited images of a nature that enticed me into believing that had what I needed.

I jotted their number down on my investigative journalist notepad in preparation for making further enquiries the next day.

The following day as I was just preparing to leave I fought with the inner voice of reason and common sense that says,’ before you go just give them a ring just in case they don’t really have what you want’.

Now, I often attempt the 5 D’s of dodgeball, which are – duck, dodge, dive, dip and dodge, when I pay witness to this  ‘guttural in house utterance’ because it has the traits of a neurotic health and safety officer who holds me back from getting my job done just so they can justify theirs.

However, due to the fact I had to visit the dentists in a few hours and time was therefore of the essence, I weighed up the risks and I succumbed to H&S regulations and called up the shop.

Having prepared the previous evening, I had managed to attain not just one, but two numbers, which initially I thought was good, because the first number failed to hail anyone to assist me in my quest. The second one did however, although the initial hoister of the receiver I realised, after several minutes of explaining my requirements was not the oracle of the shop. Eventually I did get to talk to someone who knew all about light fittings and assured me he had what I needed, but it would be better if I brought the whole light fitting just in case.

So I packed the light, got on my bike and set off.

When I got to there, I introduced myself as the guy who had spoken to them 20 minutes ago, to which I was greeted from behind the counter with blank looks. No such call had been made from me to this store.

‘Must have been our other store in Hampton.’ Was the reply.

And there, in that moment was the First lesson of the day – check what stores the numbers you are calling relate to, or check with the person who answers the phone where they actually are, in location to you!

After we had assessed this must be so, I showed the guy behind the counter my lamp shade and he showed me what they had available.

They had one fitting. And it was brass.

I wanted silver.

It had switches like the ones on a bed site lamps just below the bulb, which I also did not want.

Second lesson of the day – know what colour you want and what you don’t, when it comes to lamp holders etc. Having never had to buy these fitting before, this was only obvious to me after I’d been offered a brass fitting whilst I was holding a silver one! As the old adage goes ‘You don’t know what you don’t know’

Common sense is only common when you’ve see the same thing a lot of times!

The chap at the shop was very helpful and suggested I try another store in Hampton, which he even called up for me to enquire whether they stocked what I needed, which it seemed promising that they did. What they didn’t do however, was open after 1pm on a Saturday and I was going to the dentists at 12pm.

So far this morning wasn’t working out so well.

Everything I’ve mentioned so far seems, after the event – or simply reading this, to have been easily avoidable.

But that’s because after the event we can see ‘the now obvious’ problems and solutions. That’s hindsight for you.

But this morning, what seems like common sense wasn’t common to me and why I wasted my time cycling back and forth from Chessington with nothing to show for my time and effort.

As I left the shop I was understandable annoyed, having just experienced first hand, my mornings previous visionary gut feeling, that I initially dismissed as neurotic, played out in real time.

I shouldn’t have even left the house and I would still have got the same result.

In fact a better result. I could have sat around the house relaxing in the warm for the last hour or so.

However I’ve learnt to be quite stoic in these situations, and once I’ve had my little internal rant, I quickly turn it around by questioning ‘what’s good about this now?’

Not to be a permanently grinning, everything’s great, type of response –  when really that person is having a meltdown, but rather to in terms of finding a way to shift my perspective of the situation.

Because regardless of how I respond, the objective reality of what has happened and the outcome of that, will not change.

Happy or sad, I’m not getting any lamp holders today and I’m certainly not going to turn back time.

But I do have a choice how I emotionally interpret what has and will happen because of it.

I can stay pissed off, cycle home aggressively by winding myself up with self-flagellating self-talk and external blame for stupid shops that do not stock exactly what I want and those that close at 1pm instead of being open 24/7….I mean 1pm on a Saturday what sort of business are they running down there by not catering for my time frames!

……..Or I can accept what has and is happening right now and choose a better way to move into the future.

This is what I chose to see had happened –

1. I’ve got some cardio done and also got out on the bike which I’ve wanted to do for a while, but haven’t done so and would not have done either – certainly not this morning.
2. I learnt a few things today. For starters, I know now, each time I call a store, to check which store I’m actually talking to before traveling to it!
3. I now know a bit more about old light fittings, but more importantly – (because let’s face it, I’m not going to be making a habit of restoring old lamps) – I now know to be more product specific when I am asking for, or looking for a product. Assuming ‘some of the features or descriptions are the same as mine therefore must mean it’s the right thing’ actually does not. Be specific by knowing exactly what you want or need.
4. Lastly, it’s a kinaesthetic thing – a feeling – but I’m reminded when this sort of thing happens, that when I follow this protocol, that instead of staying in an angry and therefore reactive state, this way of enquiry, acts as a sort of release valve, which lets me think more clearly in terms of what to do next.
   At first I thought ‘Bollocks, now it’s going to be another week before I get anything done’ whereas after Id accepted what is and what I had learnt, my new product specific mind thought – ‘now I have a choice and if I want, I can now go online and buy these fittings because I now know what I need. (whereas before I clearly did not) (Personally I would rather see the products, but acceptance and perspective shift gives us ‘a choice’ rather than a feeling of ‘no choice’ and that we are Dooooooomed!

We often have a plan of how we think things will work out and often they do not. That’s life as they say.

How we think or feel about these times makes no difference to those facts. It changes nothing.

However how we interpret those facts and how we use them, does change the subjective way we interpret those facts and how we experience and handle those events.

It doesn’t mean we will feel better than we would have had it all worked out, but it does mean we don’t have to stay feeling as shitty for hours, weeks or years as we may have done in our often normal and human default mode when things go wrong.

Just like the old lamp shades I’ve been talking about selling, some may say are old and battered and should be thrown in the skip, others see them as patinaed, more authentic and currently consequently more valuable.

What might seem like crappy times now may just come to turn out to be patinaed times that could become more valuable to you that had everything turned out without a blemish.

Don’t over complicate things.

I often find as I move across the environment, it dictates how best I need to move, or I soon learn how not to!.

There’s loads of schools of thought and excellent training systems out there, but personally nature and the environment have always kept me terrain fit and flexible.