ONE WEEK IN LOCK DOWN | WHAT I’VE LEARNT

What a week it’s been! A week that in all honesty feels like a year yet the days have gone by rather fast in a haze of “must keep busy”

The strangest time in all of our lives. Banished from being outside, unable to go anywhere outside of our homes, the supermarket and for an hours exercise, but "be sure to keep your distance". I’ve never known a time in my life where I’ve felt so passionately, around 72 emotions every day. I’ve had good days spent busying myself with tasks I enjoy and tasks I’ve put off in the past. Days avoiding Twitter, the BBC app and any kind of news but also eagerly awaiting 5pm so I can have both a drink and listen to Boris Johnson (I know, I can’t believe I’m saying that either) to see what more we can do and what more they have done for us.

I have bad days. Days where I scroll and scroll and get myself into a swirling vortex of sadness for what is going on in the world, the suffering people are going through both in hospitals and behind closed doors at home. Days where I cry, days where I feel guilty and thankfully in between those days, I have days where I laugh and days where I create. Life is a rollercoaster, boy were you right Mr Keating.

In amongst the plethora of emotions have come some serious revelations; learnings about myself and the reality hitting of how I simply didn’t appreciate the things I had and could have/do before all this kicked off. It’s been a really eyeopening couple of weeks and I feel that with any luck, we could all come out the other side a better person.
So with that, I thought I’d share some musings of what I’ve learnt over the last week of full lockdown (although I’ve been social distancing for two weeks now… This is the third week) and I hope, that in someway, I’m able to make you feel less alone, less guilty and we can relate and go through this together, because at the end of the day the one mantra that truly is helping me through all of this is that “we’re all in this together”

I need to be busy at all times

Yep, myself and your three year old have that in common…
I’m so much better at life when I have a task to do, when I’m busy and away from my phone. Therefore I’ve been writing lists every day, even with menial tasks like “shower” “clean kitchen” “walk the dogs” amongst the more creative of tasks such as “shoot so and so for Instagram image” or “designs for Saturday By Megan Ellaby” if I have a list to get through I’m a much happier version of myself… I’m not one to sit infront of the TV all day, much to George’s dismay.

Doing things there and then is good for the soul

I’m really quite good at making a mental note for later and then never getting round to it… Anyone else? I’ve learnt just how great it feels to get things done right there and then rather than waiting for that perfect moment which inevitably doesn’t come. I’m going to take this learning into real life (whenever that comes back around) as there really is no time like the present.

Keeping in touch is key

Having just learnt that the amazing Houseparty app could be hacking our accounts(?not entirely sure this is true just a lot of chat about it on Twitter rn?) I must say I’m a little gutted as I’ve absolutely freaking LOVED that app for the past two weeks. It’s been so fun to feel so connected to my friends and family and to feel like we’re all together every night of the week. Keeping in touch through telephone calls, texts to your pals and video calls is something we all need to be doing right now to continue that feeling of togetherness. Whilst I think I’m pretty good at staying in touch with those I love I’m certainly going to be practicing this even more when this is all over, so get used to it pals teehee.

Appreciating the small things

I’ve always been one for appreciating those small things that make a big difference to our moods, heck I’ve written countless blogposts on the topic (read them here, here, here and here if you’re in need of some positivity) yet I feel I’m appreciating them even more now I’m stuck indoors. Walking the dogs and stumbling upon the first signs of spring with pink flowers was one thing that made a huge impact on my mood last week, the sunny days and the temperature reaching 18 degrees also really helped. The smell of coffee, finding eggs in the supermarket, skidding across the kitchen floor with George and fluffy bed socks and a morning cuddle with Nancy are a couple of others that I promise never to take for granted ever again.

Getting dressed and undressed makes a lot of difference

I’ve mentioned this a lot on Instagram as I’ve worked from home for the past 4 years so know what works for me personally and that is getting dressed every single day. I function so much better when my make up is on, my hair is done and I’m digging my outfit. It’s something I am certain will help your mood too so hope that you might give it a try this week? I’ve created a “week in outfits” IGTV video which will hopefully provide you with some wfh ootd inspo.

PJ'S- c/o KAREN MABON

I love what I do

This week or so at home has really challenged me creatively and it’s allowed me to completely and utterly fall back in love with what I do.
Having done this for around 8 years and developed the way I work along the way it’s been nice to strip things back to basics again and simply just create.
I’ve shared things over on my Instagram feed that just two weeks ago I would have deemed not feed appropriate and it’s been so wonderful to see how you've reacted to it. I’ve shared my mundane stay at home life over on Instagram stories of which the feedback has been incredible and whilst you’ve told me that I’ve cheered you up, you’ve also cheered me up with your private messages, silly memes and just general chit chat, it’s been bloody glorious and I feel that we are more connected than ever.
I’ve also really loved self shooting again (which I did with this post here) and thinking outside of the box when it comes to the kind of content I can shoot alone, it feels like old school blogging again and that's definitely something I’m going to take through with me into normal life whenever that comes back around.

So there we have some of my learnings and musings from the past week of social distancing. I’d love to hear about your learnings and also how you are? I hope you’re doing okay. Let’s chat, I love chatting with you in my comments or DM’s on Instagram. Please let’s stay in touch for sure.
Sending you all a big virtual hug… From 2 metres away of course, or perhaps an elbow touch is more preferred? Man I hope we don’t lose hugs when we come out of this thing, I think hugs are going to be more needed than ever.

Thanks for reading.

x M