It hasn't been easy...
As we write this in January 2021, there's an air of disappointment hanging over our country. The enthusiasm of a new year, vaccinations and the light at the end of the Covid-19 tunnel hasn't yet fulfilled it's promises and find ourselves in yet another lockdown scenario.
We humans are social animals. Being deprived of most of our social contact and often separated from loved ones is having a detrimental effect on our mental and physical health. The restriction of liberty and freedom is not something many of us are used to and it is especially hard on our most vulnerable brothers and sisters.
We are constantly fed bad news, about things that are mostly irrelevant to our daily lives and we've been accustomed to not only accept this as normal, but to crave it. The 24 hour news cycle is toxic. We listen to people argue, without any resolution, without critical thinking, without common discourse or respect for differing opinion. Think about all the news you have consumed over the last year...
Has this benefited your wellbeing in any way ?
As the pandemic evolved we constantly wanted to know what the latest developments were, what the latest death toll was and over time we realised this was not healthy, it was affecting our mood, our sleep, our relationships.
There's another way
We decided instead of polluting our minds, that we would try and cleanse them. Colm introduced daily meditation, basic yoga practice and we committed to both regularise our wake up times and dedicate certain times of the day to work collaboratively via video link as this is the best we can do until we can travel and meet again.
Here's what a regular day looks like now...
Begin the day with 30 minutes of yoga, followed by some CBD oil then breakfast, taking the 1st hour of the day to yourself has proved you can be focused, relaxed and energised for the day. If you feel you don't have the time to spend an hour on yourself - you're not alone. This is very common in western civilisation but if you set your alarm 10 minutes earlier each day for a week and make the commitment to yourself, you'll very quickly adjust to your new routine.
Take a break at some stage and go out for a walk, try to find somewhere green and touch base with nature as this has many benefits. Find time to exercise whenever suits you and your schedule. In the evening, work towards meditating for 30 minutes, this is a great way to clear out unnecessary thoughts from the day and remember it takes practice to achieve any goal so build up your minutes and don't be hard on yourself if you can't get into the right headspace straight away. Trust the process and let others guide you.
A lot of people feel they "can't" meditate, they can't stop thinking when they try. Meditation is not about trying to stop your thoughts, it’s more about learning to be at ease with your thoughts. Even 5 minutes where you just stop and do nothing, is a huge benefit, if practiced every day.
Take your CBD oil about an hour or so before bedtime and following these steps really helps with all the other tasks we do on a daily basis from sunrise to sunset. What we are living through for nearly a year now is unknown to us here in Ireland. It's a big social experiment and we're all the guinea pigs. If you can make the adjustments to your own life, you'll find that other things will just get a little bit easier, day by day.
We need to look after ourselves, both physically and mentally. We need to keep ourselves healthy and safe in turn, if we do this we can then be helpful to others.
In the event of an emergency, put your own oxygen mask on first, be kind to yourself, and remember to breath.
Free meditation links:
https://palousemindfulness.com/
https://www.headspace.com/netflix
Free live beginners meditation every Monday evening at 7pm:
https://www.facebook.com/jampa.ling
Free yoga links:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCFKE7WVJfvaHW5q283SxchA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Teo0f1ab1PY&index=3&list=PLbiVpU59JkVaFMGi0A8Im_hfSh-SWsFwg