UK Lockdown 2.0

How is everyone?

Hello! How is everyone feeling? Seriously, how are you really feeling during this tumultuous and unpredictable year?

I thought I would write on here and check in with everyone, to see how everyone is doing. This year has been, by far one of the most strangest and surreal years in my life and for our generation. The only way I can describe it, is to liken it to a story based on an ‘Apocalypse’, where you are constantly being stalked/chased by zombies 👀🙈.  That being said, even though I’ve just described it as a horrific nightmare, it has also been a year where not only I have slowed down, but the world has too. It is in these moments, that I have come to learn a lot about myself, the world, those around me and all the things that I do and don’t take for granted. So…even though I’ve described the past year as being both a great and bad experience, it still goes without saying that there are moments, days, weeks that are incredibly hard.

 

Do I always feel positive?

My journey with this blog as well as the little bits of insights into my life, that I have shown you on my Instagram, is all very much centralised/focused on positivity and ways that you can make small changes in your life, that further accentuates positivity and allows your mind to find peace. However, this doesn’t therefore mean that my life, itself, is always and only full of positivity – it just means that I have found ways to focus on positivity even when my experiences and things around me don’t instantly always make me feel positive. 

Letting you into a little bit more about me (something that I haven’t always been sure I would necessarily talk about on this blog)…Finding positivity and essentially, light in my life, hasn’t always been easy for me. There were periods of my life where I felt immensely alone, sad and in-fact, scared to let any feelings of happiness into my life – for the very fear that letting happiness back into my life, would also open me up to the possibility of losing happiness again. 

However, without going into too much further detail into this topic (I am not necessary locking the door on this topic, just not maybe feeling there yet enough, to be able to share further detail with you all on my experiences). My reasoning for writing/sharing a bit more about me – was for the purpose of showing you that I am indeed human (for those of you who have asked ‘Was I just born positive?’ 😃). Even though, now in my life, my mind is very much focused on trying to find the positivity and peace in every moment, it was not always this way. Furthermore, it goes without saying that I don’t always feel positive and happy in every moment. It is just that now, I know more about myself (although I am still continually learning – something that I am very grateful for) and have learnt to accept and embrace all emotions, whether they are good or bad. Choosing to learn from them, whilst trying to understand why they are there and are present, before then putting into practice various techniques/activities that I have learnt along the way, that allow me to stay focused on the positives of life and allow my mind to remain as peaceful as possible.

 

Keep on going

So, bringing it back to the actual topic of this article! (Isn’t it funny when you start typing away, how easy it is to run off on a tangent, especially when speaking about elements of your mind). As we ease into the third week of nationwide UK lockdown, I wanted to keep it real with you, so that you know that I’m not always up beat and bouncing off the walls from life.

This year is, and has been tough, and I suppose you can kind of tell from the sometimes sporadic nature of my blog or Instagram content, that sometimes life just takes over. Sometimes I feel low, sometimes I feel overwhelmed with looking after a partner with long-covid, sometimes I just feel overwhelmed with the nature of this year and all that is going on. Nevertheless, I choose to go on and 99% of my days I choose to do four small things in my day that bring me joy. I consciously make a choice, almost daily, to find the positivity in every day. And you can too. Even if you feel that you can’t right now, I am confident that with practice, you honestly will be able to make this choice for yourself each and every day, with time. And I suppose, essentially that was the original purpose of my blog was to try and bring as much positivity to others as possible as well as share things that I learn along the way, including things that I do that bring me joy.

 

My lasting thoughts…

As we continue our journey in UK Lockdown and 2020. There may be periods that you feel low, overwhelmed, unproductive, a pressure to be productive amongst many other things… But the key thing to remember, is that things in life are never really permanent. Everything around you is always changing, along with your own circumstances, life, its opportunities, and where you are now. 

Remember — ‘Where you stand today, is not where you will stand next year’ –  take comfort in that fact. So, let’s help ourselves, let’s help our minds, let’s not put ourselves under undue pressure, in what is already an incredibly hard year and let’s take the time to not only create a positive space around us and in our mind but for others too. 

 

“Where you stand today, is not where you will stand next year”

– Natalé Beckles