Can you believe that we are in March already? Where is this year going? In spite of lockdown and the enforced time that many of us spent being isolated within a tiny bubble; here we are at the beginning of spring already.
March; spring time, flowers beginning to bloom, catkins on the trees, colour coming back into nature around us; and this year – children back to school. Even though we don’t have such defined seasons these days, Spring is a time of change in the pace of life. It is a hopeful time normally and this year this means the return of a little more normality for many of us as more businesses are able to return to work on the Park, more colleagues are able to return from furlough and children fully return to school.
There is such a wide range of experience of this time with different levels of furlough, different home situations to be isolating within and different experiences of Covid-19 that it can be hard to find common ground at times. We are all individuals with very different responses even to the same situation (think about the very different ways that each of us view and then remember an incident). How difficult then might it be for us to empathise with each other’s experience and reactions to this surreal time that we still find ourselves in?
Why should that matter?
Perhaps empathising with others can help us to gain perspective and more awareness of our own reactions. We often internalise things and then find ourselves responding on an emotional level to circumstances without us having acknowledged the impact the situation is having on us. We also often notice things in other people that we don’t realise are reflections of ourselves. Self awareness and mindfulness are great tools to help us to cope with the situation we find ourselves in currently.
I’m always happy to swap thoughts on this if you’d like to explore it a bit more. You are very welcome to call me directly on my mobile: 07526 378529 to chat or if you prefer you can contact us via email on info@mitechaplaincy.com where you can request a call-back. Debbie.
We also have a range of resources on our web-site including some that are more specific to the Covid-19 outbreak and some that help in dealing with stress: https://mite.org.uk and you can easily keep in touch with us on social media: Facebook: @mitechaplaincy Twitter: @mitesthwarr
You can also find other resources on Mental Health Matters and in this TED talk How to be kinder to yourself amongst many other online offerings that will come up in any Google search.
