‘WHAT THE WORLD THINKS’ SERIES
Positivity tips for living in lockdown (Part 2)
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.
ASKING QUESTIONS OUT LOUD: “This is what I call a power practise that I’ve been using during lockdown, and it’s really helped me feel more grounded and more calm. So you walk outside and you look up at the sky, take some really lovely deep breaths like you’re breathing right into the bottom of your lungs and you make a decision with yourself about how you want to feel that day. So, do you want to feel focussed and clear when you’re doing a little bit of work, even though your kids are jumping on your head? Or do you want to feel like you’re having some fun and some joy in your day? Or whatever it is that you want to feel. Decide with yourself how you want to feel. And then think about when you’re going to feel that. So, what am I going to do today to feel that sense of fun or feel that sense of calm? Prime your brain for that moment and feeling. And then you more likely to do it. And then the second question I ask myself is, what’s the one thing that I want to progress today? That’s really helping me because some days I’m feeling quite overwhelmed with so much that I could be getting on with in my business and in my work and also juggling home schooling and stuff going on with kids and family as well as house stuff. It can all feel a bit much. Just asking myself what is the one thing that I want to focus on really helps.”
AN ONLINE CHOIR: “I’ve been part of a virtual choir during lockdown, run by Gareth Malone. He leads sessions on YouTube every night. Even though it’s a proper choir, there’s no experience needed at all so it’s been really fun to join something like this. No auditions or anything. Music is so beneficial for mental health and creativity. It’s fantastic. It’s been really so prescient because I had a really tough start to this year, and I’ve kind of unintentionally almost been in isolation, I guess, for the first couple of months of the year before lockdown even happened. I’d had a lot of family stuff going on and I was in quite a sort of a deep depression, actually. And it’s been really odd. I found it a bit of a struggle to get my head around this because I came out of everything with the mindset of ‘I feel great now and I’m ready to get out and start doing things and meeting people’… and then the whole country got put on lockdown. So this has been a big help in maintaining some sort of normality for me.”
SMELLING NEW THINGS: “So on my daily walks, I’ve noticed that I’m really more present with what’s around me, like, I love the smell of freshly cut grass now. And it’s never been something that I’ve liked or disliked, really. But when I smell the freshly cut grass now it’s like, ah, I’m outside, I’m free. I can smell nature. I’m not cooped up indoors. And I notice the smells of my neighbourhood. I’ve got a bread factory in the neighbourhood and the smell just wafts all over. And I also notice my neighbours’ front gardens and their beautiful flowers as I walk around the neighbourhood. It’s just delightful. So I feel like this lockdown has helped me just appreciate the things that were already here. And now I’m taking delight in them.”
FINALLY LEARNING TO SEW: “As soon as the lockdown was announced, I decided to pull out my list of hobbies that I have, and just go through them one by one. The first one was learning how to sew, using my sewing machine, which has brought me so much joy because it’s something that I’ve been putting off for months. And also it led me to find some new YouTubers. I was pumped to be able to create something for myself and then create things for my family, too. Seeing my family just feel proud that I did this on my own has been really cool.”
WIM HOF BREATHING: “There’s a few things that have really, really helped me in the last few weeks. Cold showers and breath work combined together, specifically the Wim Hof method. I first did this course two years ago and hands down it’s the best I’ve ever felt in my life. I have the most energy, mental clarity, sort of creativity with my work. Happiness, joy, everything. Just through the roof. That’s been a daily practise, first thing every morning. And it just helps massively on every level, it’s incredible for boosting your immune system too.”
STARTING A RADIO STATION: “We all love music. Music shapes the world, it made our friends, made our relationships. You don’t need to know the language to know music. It brings people together. So I decided to create an isolation radio station. A 24/7 radio station that brings global DJs together. So I set up Antidote Radio, Your Isolation Station. We have live DJ sets and lots of mixes that play 24/7.”
MAKING COOKING AN EXPERIENCE: “I found I’m cooking a lot more, actually. My fiancee and I do cook a lot, but we find that we would cook and maybe, you know, put it in a freezer or the fridge for the following day. So that way, you know, you can utilise it more in a week. But now, because we’re home, we find we can actually cook a lot of things from fresh, which is quite nice and actually spend time making it fun. We pour a nice glass of wine, put on a good Spotify playlist and get cooking.”
EARLY MORNING POSITIVE ACTION: “I’ve been trying some new techniques I learned from the book I’m currently reading, The Diamond Quarter. First thing in the morning, (rather than going straight to my phone, checking my emails and doing a mental list about what I need to accomplish for the day) I take ten to fifteen minutes, lie on the bed and do some very simple breathing techniques. It really helps to calm my mind. It makes me feel more grounded and stops the negative thoughts and worry drag me down for the rest of the day.”
ENJOYING OTHER PEOPLE’S ENJOYMENT: “So after the quarantine, the first bit of Covid-19 hysteria, I was really scared because I have a chronic illness and diabetes. And it freaks me out. But at the same time, I like that people are again talking about normal things and everybody is just talking about things like ‘I cut the grass’ and ‘I’m buying food for the kids’ or ‘I had scrambled eggs this morning’. It’s so nice. Everyone’s kind of going back to this humbleness. It’s really nice.”
SLEEP ROUTINE WORKS: “What I’ve learned throughout this whole process of lockdown is that sleep routine is the most important thing. I’ve gone through that phase where I’ve made the most of the uneven timings of things and waking up whenever I please, series binge sessions until late at night and all of that. Now I’ve sort of pulled myself back and learned from that because at the end of the day, your body absolutely craves routine. I’ve put in place at a specific go to bed time and wake up time and I’m just so much better for it. So I would say that’s really been my learning from lockdown and hopefully something that I can take forward and keep sleeping like a dream. Hopefully this helps someone else!”
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):
Katy Murray, Women’s leadership coach. Resilience resources (katycatalyst.com/calm)
Jess Baker, Digital and Lead Generation Executive at KCS
Sharleen Linton, Vocal Therapist (myvocaltherapy.com/vtcoaching)
Prisca Moyesa, CEO of Moyesa & Co (moyesa.co)
Duncan Nicholls, Photographer / Director at Duncan Nicholls LTD (duncannicholls.co.uk)
Keith Rickards, Producer at The Discovery Channel / Live Stream Producer / Podcast Creator / Consultant
Kieron Lewis, Graphic Designer (kieronlewis.com)
Yen Goo, Founder of Paguro Upcycle (paguro.co.uk)
Nicole Russin-McFarland, Film director, film score composer, VO actress (imdb.me/nicrussin / CinematNIC.com)
Nina Clarke, Founder of Nightire (nightire.com)
