Hello Phase friends
Sending Spring good wishes to everyone. As I’m writing this it’s sunny and I’m in the warmest room in my house even though I know in real life it’s only 10 degrees outside!
This week’s blog is a ponder on the unlocking. How are you all feeling about it? I sway between feeling supremely excited that we can see people again, feeling joy that my children can start back at after school clubs and mixed emotions about re-entering the gym. But there’s only so much cardio a girl can do before she needs to pump the iron again, ha.
Anyway, I’ve also been very aware of my occasional reluctance to reintegrate as well. I would describe myself as a functioning introvert – love seeing friends and can appear to be social (I hope!), chatty and confident. But I do revel in my own company and there’s no better evening for me than being at home with the kids in bed and reading and not talking to anyone! So since that’s been what I’ve mainly been up to for the last however many months, I’ve been thinking about what I actually want to take up again.
We’ve all had to be very resourceful in periods over the last year. Adjusting to the first complete lockdown and then readjusting every time since then when rules have relaxed and contracted. Experimenting to see what works, settling on a routine perhaps. And this goes for all areas of our life - how we shop, work, learn, socialise, plan ahead, play, exercise, get married, grieve. Everything is different.
And by and large this has been a solitary occupation, perhaps a household one, but speaking personally, there’s been a great deal that I have been solely responsible for, like getting my work done. This has only been down to me. Perhaps it’s been easy to be really self-reliant and then that in itself can cause a worry when we have to adapt to working in teams again.
What I’m planning is the good-old middle-way. Seeing friends and enjoying their company. Carting the children off to learn about how to swim or kick a ball or whatever. But also not getting too swept back up in a mad frenzy that it’s been a relief to have been forced out of.
Which bits of lockdown would you keep? And which do you never want to see again?! Have you thought about what you have achieved in the last year? That you perhaps never thought yourself capable of?
Take it steady my friends – we have a whole summer to enjoy being unlocked (please please let us not go backwards again) so perhaps take a minute to reflect on what you would like your ‘normal’ life to look like.
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