Food manufacturers, when they want....

....to sell products, don't show photographs of what their meals will look like after they have spent a few hours in your digestive system! In car showrooms, salespeople don't start up the engine and invite prospective customers to sample the exhaust fumes. There are some very true facts that we all prefer not to think about... which is fine... or even to allow for... which is not so clever

 

 

In recognising the potential downside to any situation, you're not being pessimistic... merely sensible.

Let's stick with songs...

.....for the moment. There's an old one with this line in it - 'There ain't nobody here but us chickens.' It's basically a song about worrying too much, and the reason why it is never wise to do this. We can always envisage a fox in the hen house or a wolf at the door. Even if such enemies are real, though, we do ourselves no favours by overreacting.

 

 

 

 

Cool, calm, level-headed thought, that's what wins the day.

Let's return with a little song....

....Are you ready?  On 3 - 1....2....3....'Rudolf the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose...' Yes, yes, I know it's June, but a little Christmas cheer can lift any mood.

 

You know, the one thing that really makes Christmas good is not the tradition, the feast or even the sense of celebration; it's the spirit of goodwill. The willingness to make extra allowances and to be emotionally generous.

 

 

Anyone can give a present. But it takes a lot to give of yourself.  Give all that you can.

Psychologists call it 'displacement'....

....So I'll call it something else, me thinks.  Now where was I?  Ah yes, we feel frustrated about something serious, but we are unable to influence the situation. So we transfer our attention to something trivial and get angry about that instead. Or we create a fantasy realm full of false priorities and warped perspectives.

 

 

We kid ourselves that our world is the real world. It comes as something of a shock when we discover that it is not.

Do you remember, as a child.....

....being told you were not allowed to go swimming straight after you had eaten a meal. This was, we were assured by various serious looking adults, very dangerous. If we didn't wait for our food to go down, we might sink to the bottom of the pool. But modern experts don't agree. They say that, unless you suffer from a particular medical condition, there is absolutely no need for such caution.

  

 

 

 

I mention this only to illustrate the way in which commonly held beliefs are not always true. Always check out any assumptions made.

An ant can carry up to....

....a hundred times its own weight. That makes it one of the strongest creatures. Yet, it still doesn't give it much of a fighting chance in an altercation with an elephant.

Everything is relative - a point well worth remembering at times.