‘WHAT THE WORLD THINKS’ SERIES
Positivity tips for living in lockdown (Part 1)
Sam collects thoughts from strangers about how they’re managing to stay positive whilst being in lockdown.
Taken from the podcast ‘What The World Thinks’ by Samantha Hornsby. But for those that don’t like listening, here are the most interesting predictions for you to read.
A NEW PODCAST WITH THE KIDS: “One of the things that we’re doing during lockdown as a family is we’ve started create our own podcasts. I’ve always been into kind of playing with audio or visual things (that’s part of my my job) but I rarely ever get the chance to do that with my kids, not because I don’t necessarily have the time, but more that I’ve never really thought about doing that with them. And so we’ve started two podcasts, one for our business (and they’ve helped me do the first episode, which was fun) and then they’ve started their own podcast. That one for them is not about numbers of listeners. It’s kind of an audio diary of this time for them, partly, but also just an excuse to play with technology a little where I let them set the levels and play with the mics and plug it all in and do the software. So they’re kind of learning how it all works as well as, of course, having a lot of fun along the way.”
DANCING WITH THE DOG: “During lockdown, I’ve undertaken a dog training and behaviour course. I have a little rescue dog, a cross breed called Fred and we do walk-to-music training. We’ve been practicing more during lockdown. He walks backwards. He weaves in and out my legs and he can even pirouette. We recently did the video for my Facebook dog grooming page dancing to the Simple Minds ‘Don’t you forget about me’.”
HELPING OTHER PREGNANT WOMEN: “I’m expecting my child early in the summer. Our first child. My partner and I have been trying to help ourselves and others in the same situation as us get through this potentially difficult time. We’ve been running a pregnancy support group on Facebook for all the women who are in lockdown and pregnant. My background is as a mindset practitioner and a coach, so I just felt really compelled to be able to help other women potentially going through the same situation as myself.”
EMBRACING THE INTROVERT LIFESTYLE: “That fear of missing out that makes me feel slightly antsy about having a night in is completely absent because everyone’s staying in. It’s been actually very nice.”
MORNING ROUTINE: “So I study in Denmark and at the moment, with 10 students left at the school (we were 110 before), I think the one thing that’s really helping is that we have a morning routine. We have breakfast at 8.30am, we have a short assembly then on Danish TV at 9.05am (very exact) there’s a singalong and after we do some morning stretches. So it’s really nice start to the day.”
REDECORATING: “I used to spend a lot of time outside and I never really connected with my flat and now I’m really taking time to reconnect again with my living space. Over lockdown I’ve been changing the style of the flat because my personality during the years I’ve been here has changed and evolved. So I’ve been trying to make it more ‘me’. And that’s something I truly have been enjoying.”
KNITTING: “I used to knit but haven’t for years now. But since lockdowns happened, I’ve had a lot of spare time and I’ve taken it back up and set myself a knitting project. I’m making a scarf. It’s been nice. I sit on the sofa with my housemates and they say, “it’s nice to have someone in the house that’s knitting”. And at the end of this, in winter, when we’re all free to roam, I’m going to have long made scarf, I’m hoping.”
GROUP CALLS: “So I’m a native Londoner who now lives in the Boston area. I’m in the US this year to study the thing that I’ve really, really found about this time, which has surprised me, is how much I have felt the need and the desire to get in touch with people back home and to do it in a different way to how I’ve been doing it before. That sense of community in that sense of coming together is so is rotten focussing on one-to-one interactions. I’ve actually started focussing more on the group interaction and actually I think it’s something that has truly made me a lot happier during this time.”
GARDENING: “I’m learning about gardening. There’s something really humbling about it. It’s very measurable. You can see progress from it. It seems quite creative to me, I didn’t know that before. It grounds me and calms me. And it’s having that time outside with the sun and the fresh air and hearing the birds singing and having the family pets around us. It’s really, really soothing and really it makes me happy.”
SOCIAL DISTANCING EXERCISE: “Myself and my group of neighbours on my road are all on a Whatsapp together.One week into lockdown, my mum said, ‘Why don’t we try and organise something for the neighbours? We’re all bored and there’s quite a lot of neighbours that are completely alone.’ My mum wanted some sort of dance or workout thing or some singalong thing so I ended up messaging the group chat and the rest is history. We’ve been running social distancing workout sessions on the street almost since lockdown started. Three workout sessions a week at 3pm. And we have anything from five to about 25 people coming out.”
CHICKS, DUCKS & TURKEYS: “We always promised my daughter a pet. I like dogs, but I can’t stand fur, smell, poop and all of those things so we got her two ducklings - one boy, one girl. And she’s been really amazing in looking after them. I’m like, wow my five year old is so responsible! But I think I’m the one that’s enjoying it the most because, you know, the ducks are so beautiful and they have their own characters. We’re staying at my Dad’s during lockdown and when we came, my dad already had one turkey. Then we got the two ducklings but we had to separate all of them because of feeding issues. But when they were separated they looked so lonely. So we decided, okay, great, we’re going to get some chickens. So we got four little chicks, all male (so they’re like teenage boys). And then we thought, well, you know, it’s lockdown, shall we get some more? So I got two more chickens as well. And it’s really amazing because it gives my daughter responsibility. Early in the morning, she goes she feeds them, gives them water, she helps clean out their little house. It’s just been really exciting to have that because I think if we were stuck in London during the lockdown, we wouldn’t have so much outdoor space and we wouldn’t be able to have any of them. My daughter doesn’t really understand this thing called coronavirus, but it doesn’t really affect her so much because she’s just got so much to do!”
Enjoyed that? Want to read other articles from the ‘What The World Thinks’ article series? Well, here’s some more on Medium for you…
Want to hear the audio of people giving their positive tips? You can find their voices on this episode of What The World Thinks, available on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and Simplecast (for desktop listening).
Thank you to those who shared their thoughts (in order of appearance):
Steve Kreeger, User Experience Specialist | Digital Consultant | Digital Strategy (stevekreeger.co.uk)
Nicola Cole, Dog Groomer (delightfuldogsgrooming.co.uk)
Melissa Howard, Coach, Mentor & Founder of E-volve Global (e-volveglobal.com)
Ed Stoner, Brand Strategy Consultant
Nellie Khossousi, Web Designer, Videomaker, Writer, Digital Marketer (thirdculturenellie.com)
Zakaria Jaiathe, Co-Founder and CEO at Xibit (xibitxr.com)
Gemma Ryles, Freelance copywriter, copy editor and non-formal educator
Amna Ahmad, Masters Candidate, Harvard Kennedy School, Deans Fellow, Politico, Entrepreneur & Commentator (about.me/amna_ahmad)
Cheryl Muir, Dating Expert & Coach (cherylmuir.com)
Damian Zabielski, Chief Operating Officer at My Mind Matters Too (mymindmatterstoo.com)
Segilola Salami, Mum, author, lifestyle blogger, freelance writer & podcaster (segilolasalami.co.uk)
