Naked Man Moleskin

The city of Tromso, Norway lies 200 miles north of the arctic circle. It’s not the most northern city in the world, but there are long, cold winters that 72000 of it’s inhabitants endure every year. It suffers through the polar night – called so because between the months of November and mid January, it doesn’t see the sun. This leads to what scientists call seasonal affective disorder – a condition of lethargy, low mood, and depression. No wonder it’s acronym spells “SAD”.

What’s interesting about the citizens of Tromso though is that recent studies show that they actually show no signs of mental distress or wintertime depression you might expect in a city that regularly suffers through a long, cold, and literally 24 hour dark winter. Their wellbeing barely changes across the year. This baffled researchers, but they think they’ve landed on why Tromso is able to shrug off such typical ailments. It all has to do with mindset.

By mentally framing stressful events we can powerfully influence the ways we are affected by them. By looking at stressful events as challenges, with an opportunity to learn and adapt, we cope much better than those who focus more on the threatening aspects, like the possibility of failure, embarrassment or illness. This mindset positively impacts blood pressure and heart rate, and how quickly we recover after a stressful event. It is even long lasting.

Examine the situation you find yourselves in today. Are there stressful events in your life? Are there circumstances that threaten to overwhelm, or even subtly chink away at us day after day until we don’t notice we’re in a dark hole? Change your mindset. Reframe and reappraise your situation. Look at this as a challenge, with excitement to become a better, more experienced man from your situation. For me, this is the challenge of COVID-19, low contact, remote learning, and heavy workloads.

So get excited about what you’re learning during these difficult times. The Bible clearly states in one of it’s more well known passages “ Consider it pure joy my brothers when you encounter trials of many kinds, because the testing of your faith produces perseverance. Let perseverance finish it’s work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.