As we close the month of March and look to April it’s time to pause, reflect and let go of what was a month we will all never forget.
What will you be leaving behind and what are you going to take forward with you? I always reflect on the month gone by. It helps me plan for the month ahead. Somehow filling out the pages of my monthly planner, just don’t seem the same.
So how do we step forward? Push through the competing demands that have been already been placed upon us. How do we sit with the enormous health anxieties? How do we create a sense of psychological safety in times when the world is in crisis?
Here are some suggestions that might help.
1. Stay grounded.
Connect with yourself. Allow time to process not only grateful moments, but we need to sit with the scary ones too. It’s normal to feel panic, freak out or just feel a sense of frustration for what is happening. Go with it. Write it down. Express it to a friend. Remember feelings come and go, these emotions will pass also. How your feeling is normal, believe me when I say you are normal too! Time is the most precious thing you can give yourself and now we have lots of it. Take time to mediate, walk, sleep, stretch, sort, cleanse or renew. Remember your five senses, what soothes you? What do you like to see? What smells make you relax? What makes you unwind when you touch it? What foods give you pleasure when you taste them? What sounds makes you relax? Do more of what feels right for you.
2. Stay focused.
The hours still pass and the day’s role on. Plan each day at a time. Make little goals, tasks or even set yourself little deadlines if that works for you. If you have work or school work, try work it around what feels good to do. Try to make the most of this time. Maybe now is that time to finally start some of them books that have been building up in your library. Tackle the hot-press or watch some Netflix. The time you spend is so personal to you. Build a self-care plan to include sleep, water, healthy eating, supports and exercise. Whatever is it, plan for it.
3. Stay connected but present
It is easy to become really far removed from family and friends. Try to continue to build relationships in the way that feels okay to you. If you can’t bare another what’s app video call, maybe an email, a photo of the day or just an emoji will suffice. Monitor or restrict what content you hear. It so easy to get caught up in other people’s anxiety. Listen to yourself, you know when enough is enough. Remember everything has moved online, social, learning and even our exercise! Stay present to those around you but most importantly to yourself. Reach out if you need of support. Seek professional support if you feel you need it. Yes, professional services are still working!
4. Practise self-compassion
Be kind to yourself. If you have missed a few sessions of PE with Joe Wicks and the baking is not going to plan, that’s okay!!!! Go easy on yourself. Stop with the expectations of what you should be doing. Stop comparing yourself to others and just spend your time as you want to. Social media is flooded with what we should be spending our time on. Take care of you, charge your batteries. Only you know what works for you, you know best.
So that’s it, I hope that was helpful. For me, I will continue to support my clients in the many creative ways I’ve developed. It’s not ideal but im doing my best. I am not going to lie and say my whole world has not been turned upside down, just like many of you reading this. It truly has been. I am a self-confessed optimistic and even I have been challenged at times with negative thoughts. I have continued to ‘hope’, hope for me is at the centre of my work with clients. I will hope that this will end soon, touch the least amount of people and people will return more resilient from. I included.
I am grateful for the precious time I have been given with my family and I honestly believe things happen for a reason. I like many people were working at an incredible rate, I often wondered could I actually sustain the level I was working at. Then the world suddenly stopped.
So I will end this on one last message. Be kind to yourself, speak kind to yourself and remember this is temporary. So when the world awakes, what a different space we will all be in. Will we have learned to prioritise ourselves? What lessons will you hope to have learned?
So my positive affirmation for April is ‘April let’s do this, one step at a time’.
Until next time, stay creative!
Jade X
As always please feel free to contact me.
087 7989897
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