We all lead busy lives and sometimes it seems we are on a treadmill going nowhere. These past few weeks have been quite a revelation to me about how I spend my time. I always seemed to be time – poor and not able to fit everything in. I’d set myself tasks to do but often found I hadn’t had the time to complete them. So stepping off the merry-go-round into isolation seemed to be a blessing in disguise. I traded off coffee meet-ups, gym classes and connecting with family for a really quiet life.
The first weeks were spent doing many little jobs around the house, cleaning up the garage and gardening. Very satisfying work and generating not a small amount of smugness for my achievements thus far. However we truly are creatures of habit and some of the bad ones stayed with me. I developed a sense of urgency and began to worry that I wouldn’t get things done before restrictions were lifted. Wondering why this was happening I sat down with a coffee to think it through.
The discovery was that I’ve been making life much more complicated than it needs to be. There is no rush to get to a gym class at a specific time; I don’t have to watch the clock anymore. My time is my own and if I feel like sitting down and reading a book for a while or playing a game of solitaire on the iPad then that’s okay. There is nothing really that I have to do — apart from regular domestic chores — so I can please myself about when something gets done or not.
Now I can have hour long chats on the phone to friends and family. It is fun sowing vegetable seeds — watching them sprout and pottering around in the garden. I’ve found myself spending more time and effort on preparing meals and experimenting with new recipes — although I do seem to be eating rather a lot lately!
So I’ve decided to treat myself with more kindness and stop to smell the roses whilst I can — to enjoy the slower pace and maybe that will become my new normal. But I truly do miss the hugs.
#copingsuicide #thoughtleader #isolation