Clowns...

I m definitely not a fan of clowns. Please hear me out though. I don't have coulrophobia*, the generally accepted term for the fear of clowns, but I struggle with the concept of clowns. For some reason, whenever we go somewhere that has clowns, whether it is a circus or a fair, they somehow are drawn to me.

Some time back we went to a fair on Wimbledon Common and I dutifully stood in the queue with my youngest, waiting to get her face painted. She was the most beautiful butterfly I had ever seen, but what distracted me slightly, was the roaming clown making balloon animals. I really tried to avert my gaze and look away, but was drawn to the animal making artist impressing children and adults with 'ooohs' and 'aaaaahs' alike. As I mentioned above, clowns seem to be drawn to me.

My issue is not with clowns per se, but how often represent how so many of us project ourselves. Beautifully painted facades, perfectly wonderful on the outside, yet barely managing to hold together on the inside.** So over came this clown and he proceeded to make a sausage dog for Maddi. Now she understandably was over the moon, however, during the balloon transformation process, the clown started with small talk, and I kid you not, within a few moments things had escalated quickly. In the time it takes for a sausage dog to be magically created and formed, I had been told how depressing life was, even to the point of using the sausage dog as an analogy of how full of hot air life is. And to prove the point - BANG - went the little balloon animal... I felt deflated, he was clearly deflated, the sausage dog was no more, and Maddi was confused. One ice cream later (for Maddi and I) and things were starting to pick up.

But it really got me thinking that this is all too common for so many people that I know. The feeling of putting on a good facade and getting through the day. I feel this is so so unhealthy, as we are here to more than just survive, we are here to thrive, love, create, grow and journey together. And I am seeing this more and more extreme during the current pandemic. Clients resorting to dropping the facade, as they don't need to leave the home anymore, and are advised not to anyway. ..... So if you finding this resonates with you, here are a few simple suggestions which I have come across over the past few months. one for ME, one for MY ENVIRONMENT and one for MY PEOPLE:

1) ME - Don't allow your inner voice to tell you anything negative, until you've had your morning coffee/tea/whatever. It doesn't matter what it is - it can wait. Our bodies are like machines, if you hop in to your car and put your foot on the gas hard, its going to break at some point. Give yourself a few moments to get organised.

2) MY ENVIRONMENT - Make your bed - its harder to climb back in once its made, and makes it nicer to climb into at the end of the day

3) MY PEOPLE - And lastly, give a friend a shout to see how they doing. Honestly the best way for me to change my mood, lift my head up, is to chat to a friend. Not about my problems, but finding out how they doing - and most important - if you ask how they doing, and they tell you - listen to them.

And lastly, if all you've got out of this is that I don't like clowns, that's really not true...

Leave me a comment with anything else that you might find useful that we can share and you are always welcome to drop me a line if you want to chat :)

* If we going to be technical, coulrophobia is actually the fear of people on stilts, but lets not get picky...

** I am certainly not criticising the clown profession, this is the general experience I have had with a limited number of clowns!