It's not just about the likely end-date, but also about how much you can get done, and how you are coping. Those you have experienced for yourself, and those you may only have heard about – the return of fish and ducks to Venice, for instance. Make lists of all those good things about lockdown Give yourself permission to grieve, rage and sob during the bad days, but having let it all out, make the most of the good days, find what joy you can in the small things, and be grateful for what lockdown is providing that you wouldn’t otherwise have discovered. Your moods and your ability to cope will be constantly shifting so try to honour your feelings throughout. How would you like to remember lockdown? As a time of constant frustration and boredom, or as a time when you were able to change your pace, get to know yourself better, approach things a bit differently and change lifelong habits? Be compassionate That way anything less is a bonus and rather than facing daily disappointment that things haven’t changed, it will come as a nice surprise when they do. Hope for the best but prepare for the worstĪnd assume we are in this for the long haul. Envisage your worst-case scenario, double it, and mentally prepare for that. ![]() ![]() Get up, go to bed and eat meals at the same time every day include the things that you have to do – work and housework - and build in slots for things that you know will help your mental and physical health - exercise and meditation schedule in time for communicating with friends, and most importantly, time for the things you really enjoy doing – a hobby and self-care. Break your day down into manageable chunks of time, create a schedule, and stick to it. When so much of our lives are out of our control, reminding yourself what is, is empowering and reduces anxiety. Be very specific with your planning so you regain the feeling of control Rather than focus on that post lockdown middle future, which is so unknowable, focus instead both on the more long-term future – what you can do this time next year – and the immediate future – what you can do today and tomorrow. Firstly, alter your plans and the timescale of your plans And despite that rather gloomy intro, they are things that I think will make the next few weeks of lockdown not just bearable, but potentially life affirming, even possibly life changing. In fact, there are several things we can do. So, what can we do to get through these next few weeks of vagueness, frustration and, yes, sadly, still fear? The fear of getting ill is still there, but so is the fear of whether we can cope with much more of this restricted lifestyle, plus the ever-present fear of what the future will look like once things do get easier. And uncertainty is one of the hardest of states to manage. And when it is, we don’t know how drastically life will have changed. It’s becoming increasingly obvious that we don’t know when this will be over, not really. But how is that strategy working now that it’s looking increasingly unlikely that ‘normal’ life will resume any time soon? The very thing that has helped us through, might now be the thing that is making this next stage even harder. Focusing on the fact that this is temporary, and that we can get back to normal soon has been a necessary crutch for many of us. Making plans for all the fun and exciting things we are going to do once Lockdown 3.0 is lifted has helped a lot of us get through the last few weeks. ![]() How to mentally prepare for the next stage of lockdown
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