How I deal with my problems, faster

So I know there’s no quick fix to problems. But knowing yourself can help you put into action things that help will help you fix them, faster. I’ve figured out what helps put me in the right mindset to being to deal with things, every time. What’s yours?

I’d been writing and re-writing a coursework for the entire day and was in a mental rut. I had no inspiration and was in panic mode that I was never going to get the grade I needed. I knew I needed to get away from my desk so went for a run and stumbled across Alexandra Park in Bath for the first time. Imagine running up the steepest hill, possibly ever, and over the brow is this view.

By the time I arrived the sun was setting over the city, making the stone houses golden. I could see tiny people walking in the high street and the trains gliding in and out of the station in the town centre. Bath was surrounded with rolling hills, blue sky and a blanket of cloud that had held off long enough for the sunset to make Bath glow.

I felt so insignificant yet so integral to the world at the same time. Knowing that my day-to-day life is part of the hustle and bustle below, but that the hustle and bustle is minute compared to the force of mother nature, the size of the hill I was standing on, and the wide open sky above.

A few minutes stood catching my breath, being present in nature, overlooking the normally-all-consuming city life, completely turned my day around. Looking at the tiny people walking below, imagining myself as one of them as I so often am, and then comparing the size of a person to the surrounding world gave me the perspective I needed to realise I could handle it.

It gave me reassurance that what I was worrying about wasn’t the end of the world.

I’m not saying my worries or personal situations are insignificant and I just make them seem small to solve them. Squashed emotions and problems eventually find their way back out when I ignore them, whether its in my behaviour or another emotion, so I recognise each as it comes and try to address it (easier said than done!). But getting myself up a hill and allowing myself to take in the beauty and scale of the world helps me begin to tackle them. I’m not sure why but it does. Maybe its being in nature. Maybe its getting a bigger perspective. Maybe I just like being on hills.

Whatever the reason, it works for me.