It’s all still very wierd at the moment…. Everyone still trying to find some kind of normality out of the strange and restrictive conditions we are currently living under. It’s scary how obviously we all rely so heavily on routine. It’s something we moan about and complain about ‘the daily grind’ or the drudgery of it all and yet, when it’s taken away from us, without any prior warning, it is something we yearn to have back!
It’s the normality we crave. We’ve got this time, time we’ve always said - ‘if only I had more time…’ - (be careful what you wish for!) and yet, a lot of those jobs we’ve always wanted to do around the house for example require things for us to go and buy that we can’t go out to get! So the days kind of jumble along and we begin to lose track of days, time and identity! - doing a bit of this , doing a bit of that. I’m steroid dependant and yesterday I even forgot to take my midday dose, because I’ve got out of my routine and only realised when I was about to practically collapse!
So, when you feel the day slipping away into chaos or nothingness or you want to find a bit of sanctuary, give this little exercise a go - something I’ve used with some of my counselling clients when they need to ‘take 5’… You could even do this when you are in that dreaded ‘essential shopping’ queue when you are desperately trying to extend the two metre gap from the person in front of you, whilst being VERY aware that the person behind you is not!!
This is an alternative and a more mindful version of the ‘count to five’ senario….
1 - What five things can you see? - look around you and mentally mark off five things
2 - What four things can you hear? Again mentally mark off in your mind four different sounds you can hear around you at that precise moment.
3- What three things can you smell? - Ths one can be trickier but not impossible - challenge yourself!
4 - What two things can you touch? Physically touch two things that are around you, once again, mentally marking them off
5- Finally take one big breath in through the nose and slowly exhale out through the mouth.
Foot Note: - If you are doing this exercise in that ‘social distancing’ shopping queue, you might want to miss out number five until you get home ;)
Keep safe, keep well, keep sane!
Iain
Iain is running a timetable of Free/donation online fitness classes if you are feeling cooped up and wanting to keep fit and sane during the lock down . Click here for more details
