Now that we are to shortly face the end of yet another calendar year, most of us on the Clarence will no doubt be looking back on the dying year of 2024 to wonder whether we could possibly have done things better for ourselves and for our families and friends.
According to the International Association of Psychologists, just about everyone on earth will shortly be undertaking an annual stocktake of their lives  — an habitual event at about this time of year.
Research into this aspect of living apparently reveals that we regularly ask ourselves more or less the same question in either November or December. This is centred on whether we have felt too busy and have been too stressed since we went back to work after the last Christmas holiday and New Year festive period and whether we have improved our lot?
Research by professional psychologists into this simple and very basic question has revealed that, if you, the reader, feel you have been too busy and stressed, you are by no means alone on this planet.
As a person intensely interested in what my friends and acquaintances throughout the Clarence Valley have to say, I have noticed a growing tendency by people to believe that time has sped by too fast so far this year and that life is simply tiring them out.
In these days of our fast-changing world, I am continually being told by our non-retired locals that they, too, are finding it increasingly hard to meet the mounting demands of both their work and their homelife.
This state of affairs is largely due to them having to handle increased money and labour-saving responsibilities at work and the pressure of keeping the family budget under control from the continual increase in the national cost of living and the eternal social need for us to keep up with the neighbours and the latest technologies continually dangled before us.
Too many working men believe they are now being over pressured to meet their employers’ workload needs while their working wives and partners are wondering whether keeping up with the feminist ideals of joining the workforce or seeking a higher level of activity are really worth the trouble in personal and even financial terms.
With the cost of childcare increasing, mothers are starting to think that they would be better off by staying at home to look after their children and doing away with having to run a second car, employing housekeepers and even gardeners.
Business owners in Grafton, Yamba and Maclean are complaining that their younger staff members are now too apt to claim that they are too tired to work on certain days and, after a short while, leave their employers with insufficient staff. I have also been told that some people consider life is easier for them to live on their slender savings and receive social security payments.
Like most of the people I know, I tend to complain these days that all too often I feel I am being rushed, even when I am supposed to be enjoying my sparse leisure times.
Psychologists answer these feelings of ours by pointing out that we modern humans are losing the ability to relax and enjoy the moment for fear of being left behind by the pack.
This unfortunate set of circumstances also applies to our children and grandchildren who are too often allowing themselves to be overloaded with too many tightly scheduled activities or a nervous impatience to open their mobile phones to see what gossip their friends may be writing or saying about them.
The year 2024 will probably be known in future as the most stressed year since the Covid pandemic. But, as leading psychologists point out, it is important and possible that we should now take steps to live a more balanced life to meet the demands of an as yet unknown 2025.
According to the psychologists, in an effort to ensure their children have a successful life when they grow up, some parents currently load their young ones up with too many scheduled after-school-hour activities. Instead of being a plus factor in their lives, this procedure is unfortunately reported to tend to achieve the opposite.
Too many people are also said to be attempting to satisfy the expectations of their peers by buying or renting properties which place too high a burden on their finances, giving them more to worry about.
With some people, our latest technology is becoming their overbearing master rather than a tool to serve them. Instead of controlling their phone and computerised devices, they are allowing themselves to become subservient to machines capable of interfering with the way they treat those around them.
The big question we may now have to ask ourselves is how can we overcome all the changes currently besetting us so that we can secure more joy rather than stress in our lives ?
There is no doubt about the fact that the Covid pandemic seriously affected society and that the current year has seen individual prosperity seriously threatened by the worst bout of inflation since World War ll.
We also have been hit by the insecurities of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, the unsettling tenor of politics in the United States and uncertainties over our climate and serious weather events.
It would appear that we need to relax more, have second thoughts when buying unnecessary items and not allow the day’s news to discourage us.
In view of our uncertainties, each of us must now find that ‘something’ that will guide us to a better 2025 and future.
Maybe your answer will be to pack less into each week or close your ears to those world news items of war, violence and poor ethics. On the other hand, you may seek relief from not buying items you do not really need or are more discriminatory when using your bank card and cash, finding more ‘specials’ and reduced prices for over-priced goods and foods.
One truism, however, stands out to help us survive tougher times. As the psychologists point out, when we do good to others around us, we enjoy the many benefits of having a more enjoyable and peaceful life.