Today has been... Sunny, frosty and glorious - I didn’t want to stop walking when I was out this morning and covered 7 miles in the end rambling round the local streets. We’ve had a number of days this week of grey skies and ceaseless rain - some areas in the north of the country are currently suffering extensive flooding, including Northwick where close friends of ours live.
I’m feeling nostalgic about... normal routines. We made marmalade earlier in the week - usually we make a trip to the farm shop a few miles away for the oranges - this time we gratefully grabbed the last bag of Seville oranges from Sainsbury’s last weekend. Usually around now we’d be heading to Manchester for their annual beer festival - always a great weekend, friends, beer, lots of laughs... There would be other plans coming up too - more beer festivals, trips to Scampton for me watching the Reds carrying out their winter training... Instead there is none of that - and currently not even any certainty about when we WILL be able to do any of those things.
I’m being inspired by... A podcast I listened to earlier in the week while walking too and from town (essential, before anyone huffs!) It was on the subject of “Staying calm during a pandemic” and featured host Dr Hazel Wallace talking with a Psychologist, Dr Emma Hepburn. Lots of good advice, suggestions of things to think about, and be aware of, and all delivered in a really balanced, thoughtful way. My favourite bit was the suggestion that trying to make tiny changes is far more likely to be successful than going for great sweeping overhauls of life as we are so often lead to believe we should be aspiring to. This is something that I have already started putting into place since the current lockdown started too, so it was great to have that given credence, as it were!
Right now I’m loving... The yoga challenge I’ve been doing. It’s surprised me - the first few days my brain was doing a lot of sighing and eye rolling about the level of fluffiness in it, and yes, I’m still struggling a bit with some of the more wacko stuff. Over time though - I reached day 16 today - I’m starting to feel a lot more benefit from it. Some days count as a really good stretching session, while others, like today, are geared up to deep relaxation. Either way I’m enjoying it far more than I expected and it’s something I’m interested to carry on once the 30 days are up.
Something small, but productive... one reason why I was so inspired by the podcast I mentioned was the bit about small habit changes, because as I said, I’d already made a start in that direction. When we got back from the Hebrides at New Year I committed to remembering to clean my teeth and cleanse my face every night, rather than just most nights. A silly thing, but significant - aside from the obvious benefits, it also contributes to a good pre-sleep routine, and that’s something else I want to work on.
Robyn.
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