As I write this, it’s Sunday 20th December. The day after the swift change in UK restrictions and I’m sure all of us are feeling pretty meh. Luckily, I had a quiet Christmas planned so not much has changed but I’m sending love to everyone who has been impacted. Now, this is when we’re needing some self-care ideas to make the best of unfortunately a pretty poor situation.
I find this time of the year tough, even though it’s the run-up to Christmas. It’s dark, it’s cold and this year we’ve been part of another national lockdown. Thank you 2020.
At this time of year, quite a few of us will live with seasonal affective disorder and perhaps subconsciously not realise a lower mood, a lack of energy and increased feelings of despair, worthlessness and irritability. So let’s add a global pandemic and national lockdown restrictions to the mix, that’ll be fun.
Read More »Amongst the storm of 2020, I have tried to remain reflective and take this time as a chance to learn and ‘grow’. All the months have blurred into one but I can look back on the blog posts that I wrote during lockdown and kind of gauge how I was feeling when writing them.
We’ve had the summer, those long, light days and now it’s dark by 8pm. Those daylight hours are on a downward slope from here now.
But this year, I’m actually ready for autumn. September felt like a fresh start – although of course, managing COVID-19 is proving no mean feat at the moment (get the track and trace app set up people).
As those nights draw in, seasonal affective disorder is common. You might find that your mood drops, especially as you are no longer being woken up by light streaming through your window (even if it did wake you up pretty early some mornings). Instead it’s a blaring alarm.
I’m a morning person and I’ve talked about that before. But getting up in the dark isn’t really fun is it?
Read More »Comparison actually is a fundamental human impulse (according to Pyschology Today) so preventing it completely is pretty difficult. Interestingly, comparison can be positive – measuring yourself against another could be motivating or inspiring. But those comparison thoughts can be quite difficult during the age definition of ‘early twenties’.
I’m not normally a fan of transitioning into the colder autumn weather but I’ve always been a fan of the ‘back-to-school’ feeling. We all know it’s been an interesting year (to say the least) and I’m craving the fresh start, the ability to press reset, a shake-up of the routine as we continue to adjust to a ‘new normal’.
We’ve been on a rollercoaster for the last four months. It can be categorised (trivially) as; the banana bread obsession period, pre Netflix’s Tiger King, post Netflix’s Tiger King, Disney + release, the weekly pub quiz era (welcoming suggestions for more trivial lockdown categories).
I finished university THREE months ago now and to be honest, I’d like to know where those three months have gone?
So, amongst the graduate job applications in a very uncertain economy, there has been plenty of time to pause and reflect. I think we will probably all emerge from this period of time as a slightly different person, with a different perspective, a different way of thinking. Let’s call them the lockdown lessons.
It’s been more than a hundred days in lockdown and yoga has been my saving grace. By writing that sentence, it doesn’t mean that I’ve been practising every day, that I’ve always completed an hour of practice, it means that yoga has calmed my mindset during this crazy (unprecedented) time.
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At the moment the world feels chaotic, the future feels uncertain and I have only really left the house for walks over the last three months. The ‘need’ to wear makeup is non existent really.
So, thinking about it, as I haven’t worn makeup for most days during the last 3 months of lockdown, that is probably the longest period of time without makeup since I was 13/14.
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I’m not sure which month has felt weirder this year – April or May? Let me know what you think.
It’s the beginning of June now and I’d like to define this time as the ‘Lockdown Limbo’. The rules are easing and some days, I think that there might be light at the end of this tunnel. But it’s tough, especially from a mental health/well being perspective – we all cope differently with this HUGE element of change. I hate uncertainty at the best of times so this ‘lockdown limbo’ is exacerbating that x100. Here are a few ways (somewhat trivial) that I’m utilising to help ease how I feel.
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