For those that know me longer than today, know that I am a happy person, always positive, will always find a good in a bad situation, because everything happens for a reason. Right?
Well, let me tell you that since March 13 that my kids came home with the notification that schools are closed, on Saturday my employer told me all trainings are being suspended, a customer I had on Monday told me we better postpone…. I have been at home too.
The first week I slept late, woke up late, wrote a blog, enjoyed the TIME I almost never had before. My herb garden looks beautiful again. I started reading a book that I have been reading for over a year, but I can’t seem to get into it. So I put it aside.
Then I had a day I really felt blue, not knowing what to do, I had to leave the house, I went to visit my mom. She spoke some sense into me and I felt a little better when I returned home. There was this other day, I didn’t feel like waking up and wanted to stay crawled in my bed for the rest of the day.
But being the person that I am, it doesn’t suit me to be like this.
On vacation, normally after a week, I start going crazy and need to read, work on a new project, update training material or catch up with the rest of the world, before the vacation ends. The problem now is, that it is not a vacation that is going to end – there are no projects waiting for me to fulfill, no challenging assignments waiting for me to transform in magic!
I wish I had work to go to, customers to visit, school meetings to attend, problems to solve, someone to motivate, administration to take care of and rush to bring kids to sports, buy the forgotten birthday present, pick up my husbands work pants at the dry cleaners, right before dinner.
I have been procrastinating for the last 3 weeks, like I have never procrastinated before. While I have used my empty agenda for long morning walks and healthy shakes and creative cooking, that’s about all I have been doing.
Last week I gathered some energy together and I decided to organize a virtual happy hour with my 50 shades of fabulous girls. It was amazing.
I shared with them that I don’t feel my old self, I occasionally get these panic attacks (they don’t last too long, thankfully) and I found out that we all go through the same thing. We are all busy women and even those that still have to work (front line) are coping with this insanity, the same way, one way or the other. I realized that our “Happy Hour” is not just that, it is therapy, it keeps us sane. I realized that it is good to know that no one is really enjoying this time. Even if some of us are really using the time to do things we wanted to do for a long time. But it’s just not a fun time.
What bothers me the most of this ‘time’ is that I do not have a forecast, you cannot put this in a box and deal with it. You have to deal with it day by day, keep yourself and your family safe, because if you don’t, the longer we will be locked inside.
You must find things to do or talk to people that make you feel good: if reading or listening to the news daily makes you feel blue, don’t read or listen for a day or two. If on your Facebook newsfeed there is too much negativity, detach a couple of days from Facebook or don’t read nor react on negative posts. Follow the positive things – find the positive things to follow. Try hard, try harder!
Don’t let this ‘time’ be over and you look back to ‘having done nothing useful’ or thinking ‘I wish I had’.
Start today! Pick up a book, learn a new language, clean up that closet, think of a new project for now or later, call a friend, hug your kids, your dogs, plant a herb garden, go for a walk, meditate, exercise – just do something!
We are all in this together and only we can make it less blue! Then again, the sky is blue, the sea is blue and that is a good thing, right?
