I saw a quote today that resonated with me. It went something like, ‘In the rush to return to normal, use this time to consider which parts of normal are worth rushing back to.’
The last few weeks has changed all of our lives dramatically. Most of us are prevented from working outside of our homes, if we can work at all. We have limited access to the world outside of our bubble and the smorgasbord of everything that is generally available to us, be it takeaways, shopping, sports and entertainments, or any number of services, are currently off the table. We are limited in terms of who we can interact with and life has generally become much slower.
Slow living. Something that I constantly dreamed about before life in lockdown. And not just for a day or a week, but weeks and weeks where nothing is required to be done at any pace and anything that I choose to do I can take as long as I like to do it.
I have had the time and space to choose some daily practices that have evolved, without any other conflicting priority to develop into habits. I no longer have to consciously remind myself to sip hot water in the mornings, read at least a page of words that enrich my life or throw on my running shoes when the weather allows for it. I just do these things naturally and without thinking.
I am loving the opportunity to indulge myself in creative pastimes. I have finished painting a still life, picked up my knitting and spent many happy hours in the kitchen.
I have lost myself in books for days including honouring the promise I made myself years ago to read classic books that I have yet to read and which have stood the test of time. I have read Sylvia Plath and am now buried in a Virginia Woolf.
I have relished enjoying my home. Its cosiness and functionality. It has been such a joy to stay indoors, wearing soft cotton leisure wear and a pair of woolly bed socks – all day if I want, with as many coffee breaks and naps as I want.
Glorious days indeed.
Don’t get me wrong. I am looking forward to getting back to normal life. I miss my family, my job and the ability to go and buy a coffee. But if I want to hold onto the elements that have formed my ‘happy place’ in lockdown life some changes will need to be made.
Which brings me to ‘which parts of normal are not worth rushing back to?’ And what do I need to do to form a ‘new normal?’
Fundamentally, for me, my focus going forward will be to achieve balance and energy. Life before lockdown was clearly out of kilter.
I spend a lot of time at work and there is no getting away from this, not unless I make a radical life change which is simply not possible at the present time.
Under lockdown, I have felt relaxed, grounded and far more centred. I want to carry that forward with me. This will require a greater investment in those activities that recharge my batteries. Exercise, time to read, to be creative, to stay at home or to do nothing at all. Time that I might have considered to be wasted pre-lockdown, is possibly time spent doing what is actually the most important.
So how will I make sure that I have enough time in the future to allow me to slow time down, whilst still doing everything that I need to do?
I believe that the answer will be found in mastering the art of discernment and distancing myself from the cult of busy.
More on this in my next Lockdown Diary entry.
Quietly Quaintrelle 