However you choose to look at it, life is different today than it used to be.
Our personal habits are changing, new human rights legislation is leading to changes in the way in which different groups of people treat each other, technological change jumps up every time we turn on a computer, we are doing business differently and the family farm is not what it used to be. We have only to count the many more canola fields blossoming throughout the Prairies to appreciate how pervasive are the changes that all of us are experiencing.
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Across the country, a hard conversation is unfolding. Many producers are starting to ask a tougher question: can we keep doing this the way we always have?
While I may not understand your experience of all that is changing in the world, this much I know: when people experience too much change, when they have to do too many things differently, they have trouble understanding them. They get frustrated and confused, and find themselves angrier than usual. The smallest incident can set them off into a barrage that would otherwise be out of character.
All of us know that when we get upset and out of control, we need to relax and settle down. The problem is that settling down, when everything is changing and appears to be falling apart, is more difficult than usual. I doubt if anything is worse than saying to those who are losing control of themselves that they should settle down. They know they need to relax. They would do anything in the world to settle down, but they just cannot do it.
Relaxing and taking a time out is a skill. You have to learn how to do it before you can practise it. Just as you learn how to ride a horse or balance a ledger book, so you have to learn how to take a time out. The best way to learn it is when you are calm and not caught in a moment of high tension.
The next time you are out in the fields, turn the tractor off and try a little deep breathing, floating with the clouds, and just for a few moments fill yourself with fresh air.
The next time you are sitting at home alone, when the house is quiet, keep the television turned off, the computer on stand-by and try the same deep breathing exercises. If you do them properly, you will soon feel the tensions ease out of your neck muscles and you will feel your facial muscles relax.
You can practise deep breathing just about anywhere, anytime. The more you practise, the more natural it will become for you to do. It will become a habit, one that you appreciate when you are frustrated, and need to settle down a bit.
Only then, when you are relaxed, do you have a chance to make some sense out of all the changes that the world is throwing at you.
Jacklin Andrews is a family counsellor, living and working in west-central Saskatchewan who has taught social work for two universities. Mail correspondence in care of Western Producer, Box 2500, Saskatoon, Sask., S7K 2C4 or e-mail jandrews@producer.com.
