Returning To 'Normal' Life - Tips For Moving Forward

Life has been very uncertain during the COVID-19 pandemic. There have been many questions arising such as ‘when can we next go abroad?‘ and ‘when can we go to a festival?‘. Some of these questions have been answered and some haven’t.

As people are returning to work, life is slowly returning to ‘normal’, although what is normal anymore? No one really knows. We are all trying to navigate this new normal in our own ways, so this post is to try and help anyone feeling alone and scared.

Know that there is a new ‘normal’

Life will never be as we knew it, and I think it’s important that we acknowledge that. In a way I think that a new normal might be a positive change, for example although it is annoying having to queue to go shopping, I find it a much calmer experience once inside.

Accept these changes

I know the situation sucks in many ways, accepting these changes is the way forward. Accept that your dream holiday got cancelled, accept that you won’t be able to have the year you originally planned. I’m not saying you can’t be upset about these things, but try to remember these things will happen at some point, just perhaps not this year.

Don’t be too hard on yourself

We are in a pandemic. This is a situation no one expected to be in and so it’s important that we aren’t hard on ourselves for feeling different emotions. If you’re feeling anxious, frustrated, speak to someone. I guarantee you won’t be the only one feeling this way.

Also, if during lockdown a friend started her own business but all you did was sit and watch Netflix, try not to feel bad that you didn’t achieve as much! There was so much pressure during lockdown to be as productive as possible, but in reality it can be hard to get things done when emotions are running high and the world seems to be turning upside down.

Remember: you are not alone

A comforting though is that we are all in the same boat. Of course everyone will have had a different experience, some better than others, but at the end of the day we have all gone through a pandemic and had some part of our lives changes. Hopefully this will be the only pandemic we live through!

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How do you feel about going forward? What are you doing to prepare yourself?