Never has there been a time in our lives that have we needed to be more resilient than such times as living through Covid-19. The events that we witnessed in Ireland, since March 2020, have radically changed the way that we live, sometimes creating challenging situations in our professional and personal lives.
‘Cocconing’ and ‘social isolation’ became new words in our vocabulary. This was so alien to us, a nation that loves socially interacting and spending valuable time with loved ones. We are not wired to live our lives as hermits, so as to protect ourselves. Our connection with others is vital for many reasons including; chatting through some difficulties with empathetic family and friends, letting our hair down after a busy week at the office or connecting with each other on a Saturday luncheon or night out, just for the sake of connecting.
Working from home creates many challenges, while trying to adapt to a new work environment. Self-discipline does not come easy for the vast majority of us. For some, juggling home-schooling or even staying motivated to work through the day’s workload has forced many to rethink our everyday tasks, in our professional and personal lives. Managing both areas of our lives, as separate entities, in this new situation while trying to function in a professional capacity doesn’t come naturally to most.
We may need to ‘think outside the box’ and create new coping strategies to deal with the changed environment at work and at home. Some techniques that can be useful include:
- Create daily schedules for our personal and professional lives.
- Increase our activities, while being innovative, to include trips to the outdoors. A simple picnic or takeaway can provide a great and positive change.
- Embrace technology, particularly as a means of communicating with family and friends which was inhibited during the covid pandemic.
- Set goals for the weeks and months ahead. These help with staying motivated and keeping hope alive during tougher times.
- Plan some fun activities for the weekend.
- Frequent check-ins with our new system to ensure that it is the right-fit for us will help us with seeing if our new way of being is really making a difference in our lives.
We can carry on with some of these new-learned techniques as life returns to a better sort of normal. We may discover that the challenges of adversity in life can teach us valuable lessons, such as reconnecting with what is important – family, friends, nature, self-care and much more. These new ways of being can even continue long after undergoing changes in our environment as we begin to see the benefits of positive change.
#Resilience #Adversity #ThinkOutsideTheBox
