We are at the beginning of the most uncertain times in most people’s living memory and the world around us has changed faster than we can imagine, so it seems like an odd time to be focusing on “when all this is over”.
Especially given we have no idea when that will be.
But I have been thinking on it a great deal already and I’ll share why.
Life is all about transitions. We grow from babies to children to adults to seniors. We go from home, to school and into work. We meet people, we make friends, we lose friends. We go about our lives adapting from circumstance to circumstance. We often have a plan and we aim for a particular outcome. We may study to work in a certain profession or save to buy a house.
Right now, all of our plans have been put on hold. For some people this reality is far more severe. So what do we do now? We haven’t planned for this! We haven’t prepared for the outcomes!
What if, instead of panicking about what’s not happening we looked at what we can achieve in this time? What smaller goals in life have you not had the time for? What would you like to look back on this time and say, “I achieved that”?
There’s no pressure to achieve anything great but imagine the possibilities!
You could;
- learn to play an instrument or improve on one you haven’t touched for years.
- You could learn to cook… or maybe like me, just try and get better at it!
- You could exercise and make time for your own health.
- You could read a whole bunch of books; paint a picture; grow a plant; redecorate your house.
- You could throw away/ recycle/ refurbish/ all that clutter.
Or you could simply just rest!
Day to day life is always pretty hectic, fitting in the runs to the supermarket and to kids clubs or to gym classes; making time for your friends and family around work and housework and just “stuff”. It isn’t the case for everyone but I’ve found all of a sudden, life isn’t so chaotic. There’s time and no pressure. There’s also less demand on my “spare” income… as none of the things we would normally spend it on are options for the time being.
All of a sudden I am cooking more, but eating less, spending better quality time with my son and husband, resting more and generally feeling calm. (As long as I avoid the news!) I have time for yoga. I’m sure in reality I had time for it before, yet somehow I would tell myself I didn’t.
So with all this in mind, I’ve been imaging what kind of person I will be when all this is over.
If I continue to enrich my life with all the simpler tasks I normally stress about, sleep a little more, eat a little less, find more creative ways to bond with my loved ones and take pleasure in the smaller wins (such as freshly baked bread from my oven because the supermarket didn’t have any) then that’s got to be a good thing, surely?
We can help restrike the balance when those within our communities who are now working harder than ever will need respite. If we all pull together, work together and look after ourselves… we can spare them a burden and hopefully step up to the plate when we are called to again.
I’m certainly not going to put myself under any pressure and I’m sure there will be days when all of this positivity and good old fashioned effort falls apart. But that’s okay too. I’m only human, we all are. But wouldn’t it be lovely if we were all slightly better, happier humans at the end of this? What if we emerged from this as butterflies?
Natalie Miller Kalma Life North Somerset – Visit our classes
