Learn from the Lockdown Lessons

As the world slowly begins to re-open we can see that flicker of light. We can start to visualise those long queues at the airport, those crowded sweaty spin classes and I don’t know about you but I just cannot wait. Everything we once moaned about is now something we crave and we have an overwhelming sense of appreciation for those little things that at one point in our lives we may have taken for granted.

We began to think about the things we are going to change or start doing once released from lockdown. We were all given that magic gift of time and the opportunity to stand still and contemplate our lives. Now we have to take a breath and consider if this is this really the life we had planned and if the answer is yes, then fantastic; but if the answer is no then this is our moment to re-write and change our path for a better one.

 It’s about being more present

As we are slowly released back into civilisation and back to normality we have developed a silent bond between people around us, the same bond you have when you travel miles abroad on holiday and you hear that familiar accent from home among strangers at a nearby table. It unites us in a strange way and that is what we all have now. COVID-19 has brought us together, it has made us appreciate the need for community support and opened our minds to the lives and needs of others around us. We need to take everything we have learnt in this period and channel it into good. Whether this means being more sociable to our neighbour in our next yoga session or saying hello to the cashier when we buy a pint of milk instead of being engrossed on our phones; whatever it may be it’s about being more present in our daily lives and enjoying every single moment.

 Looking after our health and mental wellbeing doesn’t always have to mean getting in a fitness session or having time to read a book. It can consist of other basic human needs. These could include ensuring once a week we visit our parents for Sunday lunch or a bbq, taking ourselves on a long walk around a botanical garden to enjoy nature. It can be as mundane or as extravagant as you need but when lockdown hit and all of these things were taken away from us it made us appreciate the simplicity of a Saturday morning stroll on the beach or a latte with friends; something we no longer just take for granted.

There were so many times we’d rush through life pre-lockdown never enjoying anything as much as we should have and never really being present. So many people will be able to relate to the need now to feel like they are not on a conveyor belt and rushing through life. Enjoying our daily breakfast or homemade fruit and meringue made by our Grandma is something we can savour just that little bit longer and honestly, in my opinion, I feel happier for the change of pace

Live life to the full

You either went one of two ways with exercise in lockdown. You would either have trained as if you were entering the next Olympics or you decided to slow it down and maybe you are carrying a few extra lockdown kilos. Whichever it may be is perfectly acceptable. Lockdown wasn’t introduced so that we could all start entering for the next ultra-marathon. It was a safety procedure to ensure our health was the main priority and that is what we need to focus on.

One of the best things that has helped people through this time is dreaming of that long-awaited vacation. Whereas in the past we may have been content staying in our hotels sipping cocktails for a fortnight, now we have this urge to get out and experience other cultures and meet the locals. Or maybe just visit to the new museum in your own city that you keep putting off; whatever it is say yes, get it booked and get out there and live life to the full.

A lot of us have been working in our makeshift home offices and may have started to feel those aches and pain as we are stooped over our laptops for hours on end. A key staple I found as a godsend was a loop band. Just a 10 minute stretch everyday with these bands enabled all those knots to stretch out and ensured I didn’t get neck or back ache throughout the day.

Lockdown allowed us to fit in that 30-minute session between homeschooling and cup cake making, that 45-minute yoga session whilst the kids rest or that 60-minute run around the local park. When the government advice was to get in our recommend 60 minutes’ of exercise a day it almost became like breathing and eating; a daily essential and this is what we need to carry on with in the future.

One of the best things to come out of this experience for some was the ability to find time to learn a new skill. You may have turned green-fingered like many of us and started planting your own produce.

During my own lockdown experience and the shortages of transport to get food to the supermarkets it made me and many others realise that we could actually grow our own vegetables, fruit and herbs and also have more control over what we are putting in our mouth. What started out as a tiny experiment turned into a focus every day and for those few hours tending to the vegetable garden we weren’t consumed by the news or the rising cases. It was just us at one with nature.

Food for the soul

One thing I hope we all take away from this lockdown experience is the ability to say NO. If you’ve had a long day working and you don’t feel like spending your evening going out with people for dinner then be in control enough to know when you need to rest. It is the most important thing we can do for our bodies and souls. Having so much time to reflect and think over this period may now give us the power to know when to remove ourselves from toxic situations or people and put our own mental wellbeing at the forefront without feeling judged or guilty for doing so.

In a lot of households there was this overwhelming sense of time and if you were anything like me you found the need to fill every minute of the day with a task or job. It got me thinking, what is the rush? How many times in our life are we gifted time? On a day-to-day basis we are always running from meeting to meeting, class to class, pick up to drop off without a second to grab a latte in between jobs let alone a catch our breath. Lockdown offered us the opportunity to see that sometimes there’s more to life than getting those tasks ticked off on the to-do list and that playing out in the garden with the kids or having time to listen to that podcast is much better food for the soul.

Lockdown doesn’t have to be a spiritual awakening for us all. For some people they may have been pretty content with their lives. For others, like myself, it allowed us a pause to help us re-evaluate certain aspects in our life.

What we can take away from this unprecedented time and experience is that although we may not have asked for this upheaval in our lives, and for some it will have been a very hard struggle, but I am sure that in years to come we will look back at this strange time in our lives and think that everything happens for a reason. Whether we see that right now or not. This change in course will make us appreciate our families and our health and we will recognise that we need to prioritise our physical and mental wellbeing first and everything else is secondary.

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