‘If you look the right way, you can see the whole world is a garden.’ Frances Hodgson Burnett, The Secret Garden

Our brains have not yet caught up though, and it appears that positive and negative experiences do not ‘weigh’ the same. It seems that to get the benefits of positive emotions in the longer term, we need to aim to experience around three times as many of these, as we do negative emotions. These don’t need to all be huge surges of joy; small instances of gently positive feelings also count. We can shift our thoughts from negative to positive. To do this we need to have power over our thoughts and that can be tricky. Let you have your thoughts, not your thoughts have you. Practice really helps and I suggested to the girls that they try:

– thinking about 3 things to be grateful for.

– thinking ‘Will this matter a day? A month? A year? from now. If not, let it go.

– when you pass someone, or see them on a screen, send a silent ‘I wish you well’ message.

– notice small moments of joy and wonder – they all add up to create an overall feeling of happiness and well-being.

As we head into the long weekend, I am aware that the government will be making statements during the course of Sunday and Monday, which may well impact on how our lives will look during the coming weeks. Insofar as any potential changes for schools, I am sure you will understand that we will need time to assimilate government guidance and consider what our response should be at The Abbey. A number of factors will need to be considered in what will inevitably be a complex situation. I thank you for your continued support as we move forward.

In the meantime, whatever you are doing to mark the end of WW2 in Europe, have a good Bank Holiday weekend.

Mrs D-C