This year - think small!

Christmas and new year celebrations are over for another year and we greet this year with trepidation. A global pandemic can do that to you… This time last year we had no idea what was in store and we set our new year’s resolutions, as we always do, and then rushed to join gyms, start writing that book we always meant to, reduce our calorific intake to make up for all the festive indulgence and so on.

This year feels so different from any that has gone before and we are experiencing many things for the first time and not the things that make our lives happier, but the things that can easily make us feel afraid, insecure and worried about the future for ourselves, our loved ones and for future generations. We are experiencing another lockdown here in London and we are again isolated from those we love and instead of the light at the end of the tunnel in the form of the vaccine, we are seeing more and more people suffering and indeed dying from this new variant of the virus which is even more transmissible than the first. We are living in some kind of sci fi movie and this is wreaking havoc with our emotions even if all we are doing is working from home and watching Netflix all evening.

How can we help ourselves? I have been doing my best not to get stuck, to keep on track with all the things that I am trying to achieve for myself and to reach out to others so that we do not lose touch but frankly it’s exhausting. Talking to others is supposed to make me feel better but all we talk about is the statistics and it makes us all feel worse. I ricochet between making healthy food and eating whole bars of chocolate and from sleeping a lot to not sleeping at all and it’s overwhelming. I had to take myself in hand and double up on my preparation for each day. A few years ago I read the book The 5 AM Club by Robin Sharma and this was an eye opener for me. It is very similar to the The Miracle Morning by Hal Elrod as they set out the daily actions that we should do in order to create the life that we want and I would indeed recommend doing this. My morning routine consists of

1. Meditation

2. Appreciation

3. Inspirational Reading

4. Exercise

The amount of time I spend on these activities depends upon how much time I have made available to myself in the morning but I prefer to spend an hour doing the above. This sets me up for the day and if I don’t do these things, then I never quite have the quality of day that I have when I do them. The difference in my feelings and thoughts about the day I am having is also very different! In the coming weeks I am going to look at particular strategies we can all use to help ourselves to feel more buoyant at what is undoubtedly a difficult time for all of us on one level or another.

Next week I will do into more depth about meditation but the most important message of the week is to be kind to ourselves, to take more deep breaths, to go outside every day for a short walk and even a long one and to sit quietly, in the silence just for a minute or two, even if this is just before you sit down on the sofa to watch the TV all evening. Sit down, close your eyes and take two long, deep breaths, and then reach for the remote control. See whether even just that one action changes anything in terms of your feeling about yourself, your current situation or those around you. Make just one small change and implement it regularly and, no matter how small it is, it will make a difference.

Remember, you are not alone!

hillybarker@gmail.com