NCC takes gratitude to Praslin |05 October 2013

Seeds are being sown today and hopefully the  gratitude campaign will bear fruit for each individual and through them the whole of Praslin and Seychelles, Bishop French Changhim said as he opened the  recent ‘Gratitude is a great attitude’ conference at the Pension Complex, Grand Anse Praslin.

The conference, organised by the National Council for Children (NCC), was held to mark world peace day. During the launch ceremony, Bishop French called for a deeper awareness of the reality of our unbroken connection to the whole universe -- more intense awareness of our connection to the All (to the elements, the environment that surrounds us).

He reminded the delegates that we exist for each other as an ever-present support although we sometimes simply forget that. We may fail to notice simple things right in front of our faces, but it is our responsibility to become more conscious and more grateful to each other’s contribution.

We can be grateful to friends and family, for jobs, for trees, for the very fact that we exist. We have to acknowledge and accept the gifts of every moment! And overlook nothing! Our prayers of gratitude help to make us worthy of all that the natural world provides. By fully taking in the gifts, and by fully giving back through service and gratitude to the All, we're bound to the universe as well as the will and intention of God who touches our listening heart and functioning bodies. And for that we have to give thanks and let our heart sing François Havelock’s song Mersi pour zot tou.    

Christianne Jeannevol, a retired nurse from Praslin, then took the stage to talk about gratitude and the importance of cultivating the ‘right attitude’. She had experienced gratitude in three main forms she told the Praslinois. “Normally it comes as a feeling in my heart – an expression in words that I use and giving in return,” she said.
To explain all that she started repainting her childhood days and retraced the steps to the time she started her nursing career.

“Life was full of challenges then,” she admitted, “but today I’m grateful for these difficulties because it forged my character and gave me the strength to face bigger challenges especially when I unexpectedly became pregnant at the age of 23. I thank God for his help then. I was sent to Praslin which was an unfamiliar territory for me and I was on my own. It was a drastic life-changing moment but I had sworn to serve and care for the sick and this is what guided my action as I climbed every mountain of Praslin to bring health care to the patients’ doorsteps.”

At some point she choked on her words as she remembered some of the hard times but she fought back the tears and found that some of those bad experiences were things she was grateful for as she had broadened her knowledge and become a better person during the 46 years of service in the Ministry of Health.

Although retired from active service, Mrs Jeannevole is still deeply involved in social work – with the senior citizens group as well as helping out in church work. Her involvement in the NCC conference was not only to express gratitude for the blessings that life has brought her but to encourage young people to develop the right attitude towards others such as in respect for self and for others and for all the good things that life offers.

She was immediately followed by Celine Accouche, a teacher from Praslin, whose life had been turned upside down by one of the worst accidents involving school children on Praslin. As a result of this accident three years ago his son is now paralysed, but in reassessing her situation, Ms Accouche began to shift her focus away from the pain and challenges she was encountering and found that an attitude of gratitude towards the numerous benefactors helping her to nurse her son became an effective and powerful strategy for keeping a positive vibe going even during the toughest of times.
 
During her intervention she allowed her thankful heart to sweep through the hall to express her gratitude to the whole Praslin community and the government for the kindness and compassion shown to her family.

After that the multi-talented NCC staff got the delegates in stitches with some yoga exercises and meditative reflections. With spirits uplifted the delegates were led by National Sports Council chief executive Giovanna Rousseau through a physical exercise session. The audience was then invited to watch a home-grown film on ‘Living Happily’ produced by the NCC and from then on the focus shifted on ‘happiness’.

Martin Kennedy, the head teacher of Vijay International School on Praslin, made an attempt to deconstruct the illusive concept of happiness by sharing his thoughts on the subject.

Thinking, he said, was mostly encouraged at school. “When it comes to happiness, I am not so sure that this is what I will recommend.  I would rather go for living and enjoying the moment. Because the more you think about life and its struggles and the fact that most of us have to work very hard over long periods of time and then die is not something pleasurable to think about.  What make us happy are the simple things of life. A toy can bring instant happiness to a child for example. House points can bring a surge of happiness to students at my school,” he said.

“Happiness might be linked to chemistry – he argued, because a bout of physical exercise can produce endorphins and send serotonin to our brain. Some  people  seem to think that happiness is something that happens to us like going to a party and expecting to feel happy there – but it doesn’t always work  that way as we might end up feeling unhappy the next day because we ate and drank too much and suffer from hangovers,” added Mr Kennedy.

Through his intervention, Mr Kennedy raised a lot of questions about what causes happiness and concluded on the point that happiness is something we can cultivate and create for ourselves rather than waiting for it to happen someday.

A spokesperson for the NCC told us that through this conference, the organisation wanted to raise awareness about the gratitude campaign it launched earlier this year on Mahé and the main goal was to increase knowledge and awareness of its living values programme and encourage practice of gratitude and respect in the Praslin community.
Accompanying the article are two photos taken at the conference.

Text and photos contributed