So we’re now 8 weeks into lockdown here in the UK and during this time, I’ve spoken to many, many people through the various webinars and promotions I’ve been running.
I’ve also been continuing on with private client sessions and doing a lot of work with corporate clients providing a wide range of virtual learning sessions for their employees.
Not surprisingly, at the beginning of lockdown, there was a real focus on how best to navigate the situation because it was all so new and concerning, and for the most part, people and companies were simply trying to fight fires, keep things going and make sense of the situation!
So, in those early days, the conversations I was having with clients and the topics for my online sessions centred around ‘healthy homeworking’, immunity, stress and anxiety management.
If you’d like to revisit those topics you can read my tips on healthy home working here. Or for the blog on immunity here and stress and anxiety I have many blogs here!
Around a month or so in, as people began to adjust to this new normal and were settling into more of a routine, the conversations moved to resilience and how to handle adversity in the short term but also for the long term so that we can learn and grow from this experience. During this time, I wrote a blog on this as well. If you missed it, you can read it here.
Now, at two months in and with our government starting to ease off on the restrictions a little, I’m seeing a real shift as individuals and organisations move their focus to what they want to do differently moving forwards and what’s next.
We all have an amazing opportunity now to do a kind of ‘lessons learnt’ exercise looking at all areas of our life, asking:
- What are the things that came from this time that you would like to carry forwards?
- What habits or ways of living and being from pre-lockdown do you not want to go back to?
- What positives have come from this situation?
- What negatives have come from this situation?
- What do you miss from pre-covid times and now value more?
- What are you grateful for from this time that you now value more?
I have clients, for example, who are questioning whether or not they want and actually need to be in the office 5 days a week moving forwards … and of course, businesses are questioning this too.
I also know people who are questioning whether or not they need to engage their children in so many extracurricular activities seeing that perhaps they are happier with less. They’re looking at this not only from the perspective of their children but also the amount of time they spent as parents on the weekends and in the evenings ferrying their children around and then lastly also the looking at the expense of it all.
I have one client who has realised she doesn’t want her parents coming to stay every other weekend anymore, having experienced life without that pressure and how her weekends have been so much more relaxing. That, by the way, is exactly what I mean when I suggest being ‘unselfishly selfish’!
I know of people questioning certain friendships and friendship groups and if they really add value to their life.
Or realising they need more sleep than they thought they did, but they didn’t actually know this until they got more sleep!
Some people are now feeling much more fit and healthy and they want to keep that up. Or, in contrast, some people have calmed down and stopped being so busy and they realise they almost didn’t know what it felt like to stop and slow down!
And there are many, many more examples like this that I could share.
So, with all of that being said, I encourage you to take this time and ask yourself the questions above, looking at every area of your life.
There is so much to learn and gain by reflecting on everything that you have been through so that you can then shape your life for the better moving forwards.
Kate x
