When you change the way you look at things, then the things you look at will change.

Staying Put During Lockdown. A Great Opportunity to get to Know You Better.

Lockdown can be a difficult time for many people. So it’s not surprising that we’ve seen a spike in anxiety at a point when we’re facing huge changes to our daily lives. Couple this with a sense of uncertainty about the future, then there are no surprises that the mental wellness of the nation is being challenged.

Additionally, being separated from our friends and family, along with a routine that may well have been thrown into disarray, means that many of us will have been forced into close proximity with that inner critic we normally try to avoid.

While your immediate instinct may be to suppress that nagging and often unkind internal dialogue, lockdown may actually be a good opportunity to lean right into it.

Look at the acronym FEAR.

It stands for a “False Expectation Appearing Real”

We are very good at creating a fear response from our imagination.

For example, if I was to say to you that we are going to do a bungee jump right now, what would your immediate response be? Whilst some of you would be okay with that particular challenge, perhaps because you’ve already done one or are an adrenaline junkie, but for most of us we would go into a fear response. Why? Because I don’t want to die y’numpty!!! Yeah, I get it. It doesn’t have to be something as crazy as bungee jumping, but sometimes the reaction is still the same.

So what creates fear for you right now during the lockdown, and how do you choose to see yourself growing from this opportunity. Again, I realise that things are not that straightforward, but the solutions can be. It’s your choice.

Further, what I also have found helpful is being able to do a brain dump. This I do by firstly writing everything down that concerns me on one sheet of paper and what I am grateful for on another sheet. When reading the sheet that causes concern, I ask how this serves in growing me. If it doesn’t, it ceremoniously gets put in the shredder!! The sight of it being shredded is quite cathartic, very relieving.

The sheet with what I am grateful for gets put on the fridge, so I can see it every day.

Try it.

I also find comfort in learning from the experiences of others and the way they deal with their inner dialogue through quotations.

Here are a few quotations from Wayne Dyer and Lucius Seneca that you may find helpful:

• When you change the way you look at things, then the things you look at will change.

• There are more things that frighten you than injure you.

• We suffer more in imagination than in reality.

• A person that suffers before it is necessary suffers more than is necessary

So whether it’s through physical actions you need to take or a reset in the way you look at yourself, this lockdown is merely a blip in your timeline. This will pass and you will continue to discover some amazing things about yourself going forward.

It’s just a choice. Your choice!

Take extra care and catch you again soon.

Tony