Victoria Ioffik is a Kiwi from Belarus. On this special day, she’s sharing her thoughts about New Zealand as a migrant.

Victoria appreciates the help she’s received from English Language Partners to settle here. Thank you volunteers!

"To wake up every morning with gratitude"

We live in New Zealand. New Zealand is a beautiful green country with virgin nature: fresh air, clean soil, and water. Moreover, it is one of not numerous countries which take care of their citizens by providing them with permanent income and equal rights. It does not matter if people working or not, they always have bread on their table because the Government takes care of them. The people from different nationalities and religious beliefs have equal human rights.  You allowed to be any religion and you will not be prosecuted for that. It more appears as New Zealand unites different people together.

Also, we can express our opinion free. Nice, very polite and supportive New Zealanders always happy to help, to take care of somebody in need, of nature and animals. We live in a peaceful country, far away from the wars, global catastrophes, and religious intolerance. However, do we realize that and value that? Do we know how to express gratitude toward everything that we have or we more often express dissatisfaction and unhappiness? Any event can be assessed as positive or negative. Which side do we use to see more – positive or negative? Which emotions are we use to express easier positive or negative? Do we pay any attention to that or we do it automatically? Sometimes we automatically start to complain about everything without thinking a lot.

In one book was mentioned that to understand how it was good to live in Paradise, people needed to leave it and experienced some hardship to feel the difference. Do we really need to have this experience regarding New Zealand or we just can be grateful for everything that we have: for every new day of our life, for bread on the table, for nice caring people around us, for clean air, land, and water?

Negative and positive emotions cannot exist together. If we express negativity, we do not leave the place for positivism. Our thoughts and emotions are forming our reality. In which reality we want to live? Negative emotions together with a lifestyle are one of the composing components of such diseases as cancer and heart disease. However, if we love ourselves and are happy it is easier to make any changes in lifestyle too.

Thus, I call you to wake up every morning smiling and thankful for that we woke up alive, be happy with any weather (sun or rain – everything is good for the land), to react on every event positively, with gratitude. Our positive or negative reaction will define an outcome of a situation or event. Try to find good in everything. Some negative events were done for the purpose to teach us and develop ourselves. If we will understand it, accept it and take it as a lesson with the positive emotions-an outcome will be positive. I knew people with an advanced stage of cancer who worked on themselves and changed themselves, fight for their lives, were positive and healed as a result.

So my dear readers, live with love for yourselves and others and be grateful for everything that you have.

More about volunteering. If you feel inspired to volunteer for English Language Partners, get in touch with your closest centre