Hard times? It's a golden opportunity for us all...

The economic news isn't good.
It's pretty clear that most of us are struggling financially,  our children can look forward to leaving university with huge loans, tough competition for jobs and the prospect of never being able to buy their own houses. There is a health crisis in the UK based on lifestyle diseases, heart disease, diabetes, cancer and if you look at the projections of these diseases over the next thirty years, we are facing a health disaster. More and more people are suffering from stress, or depression, or both. I bet you know someone who does. Maybe you do yourself.

The policiticans tell us that we need to get the economy going. Which means we need to consume more stuff. But at the same time, we need to get debt down. Debt is bad. Debt's what got us into this mess.

Am I the only one who thinks the messages are so mixed they're off the scale? That things aren't just a bit broken - they're fundamentally all wrong?

You could wring your hands at the madness of it all. But I prefer to see things a different away.
I think we should think of these tough economic times as an opportunity. Let's concentrate on the things that we KNOW can help - that are healthy, uplifting, and good for us physically, emotionally and mentally. Things that bring us together with friends, family, and our community. Things that reconnect us with our food, and our environment and our own physical wellbeing.  Can you see where I'm heading with this?

I was walking through Hackney in London the other day on my way to a meeting with a client. I lived in Hackney many years ago. It was gritty, a bit dirty, a lot down at heel but bursting with life. It's still bursting with life but a transformation has started to take place. Now, admittedly, inward investment - big money - has been a major part of that. But it's not the whole picture. People have come together, to plant seeds, bulbs, to put up little bits of urban garden - a window box here, a raised bed there. At the sides of the road where maybe there used to be bin bags and piles of litter, there are now collections of herbs and perennials, carefully tended by local people, not experts, just groups of neighbours doing their bit to make their street nicer. Hand in hand with good ruban redevelopment, which has incorporated bushes and trees in the middle of the concrete, this bit of inner London has now got a multitude of spaces that feel welcoming, friendly rather than unpleasant and threatening. Of course the litter is still there - so is the graffiti - it's not perfect, but it's a heck of a lot nicer and much of that is down to people getting together and using plants and imagination to improve their environment.

These spaces make us feel better. Green plants and trees make us feel better. Learning to grow and tend them, meeting our neighbours, swapping cuttings and seedlings, sharing advice and tips, all of this makes us feel better. Because at heart, we are social animals and we are part of the natural world, and getting back to the natural world - going for a walk, a jog through the part first thing in the morning with a friend, listening to the birdsong, watching the urban - or rural - wildlife going about its business - these are things that can help us get our heads into a good place for the rest of the day. These things don't need to cost much, or indeed anything, so now is the perfect time. Take the kids. Be part of re-educating a generation into seeing exercise and fresh air as an everyday necessity, not a twice-a-week dose of national curriculum approved PE. You don't need a huge garden to grow your own veggies and herbs. You don't need to shop at boutique supermarkets to eat fresh organic salads and potatoes during the summer. You don't need to belong to an expensive gym to keep fit.

And here's a thought - instead of spending a fortune referring people to therapists, prescribing anti-depressants, treating patients for obesity related diseases, compulsive eating and back pain, why not prescribe people a personal trainer or small group exercise session, twice a week, paid for by the NHS? Not in a sweaty gym, but outside, in the fresh air. With other people! Who might become friends!

Shouldn't we be taking advantage of the move to online shopping rather than bemoaning the loss of retail space, by converting those spaces into community exercise hubs, public gardens with veg boxes and flowers and bees and butterflies joining with buskers and performers and pop up art galleries. Getting the generations together by bringing in older people to help teach the young-uns the secrets of growing perfect peas and beans. Re-creating our town centres as places here our kids can re-learn what our grandparents knew during the war - that you don't need to have luxuries to get by, and actually, shared values and community spirit is worth any number of hours shut away on your own playing on the computer. Surely that would be better than even a Woolworths renaissance?

Instead of whining about the social change the internet and the global financial crisis has brought, let's celebrate it, and seize the chance to make this a positive change that works for us all. And most of all let's not wait for someone else to make it all happen.

And on that note, time to stop blogging, go outside, and take a dose of my own medicine!