Losing your ‘mojo’? You aren’t alone

PERHAPS your Christmas tree is up and decorated, your cards have been written and presents bought and wrapped. These days I often feel not just short of time, but as if I’ve lost my ‘mojo’ too.

As I write, the room around me (my office, which doubles as grandchildren’s playroom) is a tip and I feel incapable of doing anything about it. So, tiredness and tension increase.

The danger comes when everyday pressures cause serious rifts between partners and families. Easy to snap at Christmas — especially with the extra pressures caused by youknow-what. Sadly January sees an increase in the number of people wanting a divorce.

But it surprises me how many don’t bother trying to put things right. I’ve been reading the Annual Review (2010-21) of relationship charity, Relate.

Relate has 1,200 trained practitioners who provide adult relationship counselling, sex therapy, counselling for children and young people, family counselling, and mediation.

Covid hit the counselling world full-on and so the charity had to develop new ways of working that weren’t face to face.

Relate’s services continue to deliver good results — 77 per cent of clients with relationship problems said their communication had improved and 72 per cent recorded improvements in their ability to manage conflict.

The report reveals that 30,528 people attended adult relationship counseling (that includes phone and webcam) and 2,398,537 used the online selfhelp service — all testimony to a need for experienced intervention (www.relate.org).

If you feel stressed and isolated it’s all the more important these days to look for help outside your immediate loved ones — who may not be quite so loved.

I hear plenty of complaints about the modern world (see today’s second letter) but the proliferation of agencies (all with websites) offering help can be celebrated.