Lockdown 3.0

After some quite wild yo-yoing back and forth between tiers over Christmas, the UK (or to be exact, England, because Wales and Scotland and Northern Ireland have their own things going on) has gone back into lockdown. Will it feel as strict as the first one waaaay back in the spring of 2020? Probably not, but it’s still tough on the old stress levels, and can only be more stressful if you add children, work worries, underlying health conditions, elder relatives, money worries and other things to the mix.

I know I’m extraordinarily lucky to live in the Forest of Dean at this point, because I can pretty much walk out the door and be surrounded by trees. I can ride gravel or MTB from my doorstep. The only thing I can’t really do is swim as there aren’t any convenient rivers nearby that aren’t swollen and fast-flowing with the winter rains, and I don’t want to become a statistic.

Having the trees outside makes such a big difference. I always feel better when I can motivate myself to get out and walk among them, which is something I need to do a lot more often - it’s strange how hard it is to leave the house even though at other times I’m desperate to get out of it.

So I’m going to try and be gentle with myself, encourage myself to get outside every day even if it’s just a cup of tea in the garden, work on things that bring me joy like playing around with paints, pen drawings and my podcast, and make an effort to chat to my friends more often rather than just hibernating again. Yes, it’s winter, but I think shutting myself away too much isn’t good.

I hope you’re all finding ways to be happy and relax during this time. I’ll find and share some resources that are helping me on here and via my social media channels. hugs!