Guest blog from Annie Bryan.

 

Life in lockdown

Now the emergency lockdown has come into place, life feels a little different, doesn’t it? I think we’ve all realised that we took our freedom for granted, now we can no longer enjoy the smallest things such as going for a walk with a friend or going out for lunch.

COVID-19 is affecting every single one of us in very different ways; from parents having to keep kids entertained at home, people dealing with losing their jobs, GCSE and A level exams being cancelled, to those in the at-risk group being worried about health.

How I’m staying connected during lockdown

However, in amongst all this, day to day life continues at home. Normally, I work from home during the week, so the weeks don’t feel all that different, but at the weekend I’m rarely in!

As I’m such a social person I am finding it difficult not to be able to go out and see my friends and family. One way I’m trying to stay connected is by group calling using Facetime or Zoom. Me and my friends are even having ‘pub nights’ at the weekends, where we can group call from our rooms and have a drink together, which has been very entertaining! I think seeing someone’s face and hearing their voice is much better than just a message.

Keeping busy in a meaningful way

It would be very easy for me to just spend the next few weeks mindlessly scrolling through Instagram. So, for the time I do spend on social media, I’ve had a bit of a clean-up by unfollowing or deleting anyone whose posts don’t bring positivity to my day.

Similarly, although I think it’s important to keep up to date on what’s happening in our country, I find that listening to the news too much can be very scary and make me focus too much on the negative aspects, so I’ve tried to minimize how much of that I hear.

Some other things I’ve been doing to keep myself occupied are making the most of the permitted daily exercise by going for walks with my Mum, learning yoga using the Nike Training Club app, and trying out new vegan recipes to share with my family.

 

Looking after myself whilst isolated

I’ve also started using a meditation app called Insight Timer. I feel that it’s really helped me improve my mindset; I feel much more positive about the current situation and feel encouraged to live ‘in the now’, rather than worrying about holidays and festivals getting cancelled, and whether or not I’ll be able to go to Uni in September.

Instead, I’ve been trying to focus on all the new things I can learn, rather than everything I can’t do at the minute.

 

Choosing the positive

So, perhaps 2020 won’t go quite as I expected it to, but I know for sure that when everything does finally go back to normal, I’ll appreciate those little things so much more!