Chance or Change

This once in a lifetime experience has bought about an extraordinary period of rapid change. Everyone has been affected. We are all currently living side-by-side and are potentially at different stages of change.

All of us are managing the day-to-day changes forced upon us and the huge learning curve that this has generated. Everything from learning to establish a home working routine, to working out the whole digital technology thing, the apps and software that we have needed to upload, download and learn how to use and the volumes of You Tube videos consumed in the quest to learn how it works. Not to mention the swift learning to better understand hardware and ensure that our digital services and technologies suit our entire family’s needs. That’s not even touching upon the concept of our personal needs, such as coping with no face-to-face contact, staying in even when we ‘need’ to go out, queueing for shopping and managing relationships with loved ones who you don’t usually spend 24 hours a day with! For some of us, we also have had the added ‘learning curve’ of home schooling (I say no more!).

Many of us are starting to accept that this is our new, temporary way of living. Like it or not, ‘it’ is here to stay for a while. We are beginning to find ways of coping with our new found routines and this unique, not-so-planned way of living. Some of us are writing daily task lists to feel a sense of achievement each day. Some are actively reaching out and talking to friends, loved ones and catching up with our networks. Others are focusing on their fitness and mental health. A fair number of us are starting to find ways in which to fill our days quite nicely. We’re starting to embrace the idea of completing DIY jobs, organising gardens, cleaning the house, listening to music, reading books that have been on shelves for months, enjoying nature and learning new skills and languages. For some of us, this is a time of calm and surface-level acceptance.

That said, it is important to note that many of us may still experience boredom, anxiety of the unknown, loneliness, fear for ourselves and our loved ones, the stress of losing our jobs and incomes, and all the pressures that comes with this side of this pandemic. We are all too aware of the fact that we cannot be sure of what the world will look like on the other side.

There are a few amongst us who by now are looking forward to post Coronavirus. We all know that this time will come. It is a given that we have all changed in some way from this experience and we will all catch up with one another eventually. This small group amongst us, are already planning and starting to understand what is important to them, what they have learnt from this experience and who they want to be when they are on the other side. Post Coronavirus, the question we will need to ask ourselves, is who do we now want to be?

It is fair to say that we are still craving for our lives back and are doing the best we can for now. However, is the life we stopped some 6 weeks ago, the life we can go back to, now?

The more we talk about how we feel, what we are experiencing and how we wish to progress post pandemic, the more we can prepare for a life beyond isolation, beyond Coronavirus. The more we talk, the better we can start to develop our own ideas and thoughts of how we wish to progress, after the pandemic is long over. The more we talk, the easier it will be to make the transition back to life, and for some of us into our new lives.

Please find someone to talk with and be prepared!