Finding a Light in the Darkness

For millions of us, lockdown has been the hardest, most challenging 3 months of our lives. But could we exploit this experience to emerge as stronger, healthier versions of ourselves?

This week is the eleventh of the UK’s lockdown, and although restrictions are slowly lifting in some areas of the country, our day to day lives are still very far from normal.

For me personally, spending lockdown in Edinburgh with my husband, the national guidance is to remain indoors as much as possible, which for us means venturing outside for exercise, weekly online grocery shopping and keeping car journeys to less than 5 miles from home.

Most of us would probably agree that lockdown has been hard – on a practical level, as we adapt our homes to become part-office, part-school, part-gym. But also of course on a mental level – separated from family, our friends, spending the majority of our time trapped at home, either alone, or with children in need of constant engagement and entertainment. Add to that the huge underlying stress and anxiety of the disease itself, and it seems obvious to say that the last 3 months have been a huge challenge.

But what if we were to look beyond the obvious? What if we seek to find the opportunities that are buried within these current challenges? Is there a way that we can flip this negative experience and perhaps discover something new, something different or even positive?

As one of the millions of employees furloughed by this pandemic, I have been faced with a huge amount of unplanned and unoccupied free time. At first this seemed a gift – who wouldn’t enjoy endless days of lie-ins, binge-watching Netflix boxsets and taking long walks in the spring sunshine? And I won’t lie, for the first few weeks it was rather pleasant. But most of us need more than this. We need a sense of purpose, of achievement – to feel that we are living our lives, and not merely existing. And indeed after a few weeks, I realised I too needed this sense of accomplishment.

For the vast majority of us, our everyday lives have never been disrupted so significantly, for so prolonged a period. For me, not since the seemingly endless summer holidays of school and university had I had so much free time at my disposal. For many, lockdown has been an opportunity to reassess our priorities, our values, and our goals for the future.

With no deadline in sight, I decided to set myself really small, simple achievable goals that I could tackle on a daily basis. I have always wanted to speak a second language, so I downloaded an app on my phone. I now give myself a daily dose of German – sometimes it’s the minimum of just 5 minutes, sometimes I am on there for an hour. The point is, I do it every single day.

The same goes for exercise – I persevere to get my 30 minutes of walking, running or exercising each day – even when – no, especially when, I am not in the mood for it. It always makes me feel more positive afterwards.

These may sound like small steps, but that’s really the whole point. I’ve purposefully set myself tiny, bite-sized goals in order for me to achieve them. The confidence that grows from these small achievements gains momentum – encouraging me to think bigger and bolder. After all, eleven weeks ago I don’t believe I would have had the courage to write my own LinkedIn article. And now here it is.