Heeyyyyy friends, whats new? Jk, we all know what’s going on. This is why this is my new fav meme/the cover of my ig stories highlight for quarantine times:
They say if you do something for 21 days it becomes a habit. So maybe that’s why I feel like this situation is a bit de rigueur now? It’s day 36 today (ugh stop counting) as I write this, and it is getting harder to remember the “before” times with people and mascara and pants that you have to do up. But regardless of feeling a bit more at ease in the new world, it is still very hard. I’ve been trying to write this blog for a few weeks now, but last week my creativity was zapped, just gone. The week before I was writing this in my head on runs and then I sat down and looked at it and nothing. Just words and squiggles. It was a hard week but things got better. I did manage to write some more of it on my run on Friday and now it’s Monday and I have to get everything done this week because next week is crazy work-wise, so this is the blog post. Hopefully, it’s not all just verbal spew but actual coherent sentences that will help me get my groove back.
So how are you adjusting to the new normal? As I said already, things have been rough here but also not. Like every change, and like “normal” life, there are good days and there are bad days. During this time the days are way longer and it’s a lot more work to talk to people about your issue, or in general, so it’s easier to get stuck in your head just thinking and stressing and obsessing over the same problem again and again. That was something that happened to me as a person who worked from home a few days a week and is already a pretty hard core introvert (little did I know how well that was going to prepare me!) and now it’s just More. More thoughts, more alone time, more fear, more stress about toilet paper and pasta supplies (and just going to the grocery store in general) and again, more day. Man, these are long ass days. But we are getting through them. March feels like it was 7 million years ago (don’t get me started on February) but sometimes counting does help-it can be surprising to think about how long it has actually been….as long as you don’t do it too much.
One of the biggest issues I’ve had is to not feel guilty about taking breaks. With my hours cut for one of my clients earlier this month, I found myself with nothing to do (aka on my daily or even weekly to do list) which hasn’t happened since….before we created Whale Tales? (what did I use to do with all my time?!) And yes there is always something for me to do on my long term to-do list but when it’s only an hour or so, maybe it’s better to force yourself to take a break and decompress some of the madness that is happening every day? Literally even as I write this, I am think of a bunch of work I could do in the hour I’m about to take off but no! I am forcing myself to have a bath and read a shitty book. What a jerk I am. However you do have to watch yourself and not swing too widely the other way and then fall behind. Keep a routine, even if it’s not the one you used to have.
The problem with writing a blog in pieces over two weeks is it’s a lot of incoherent babbling and thoughts about how you feel in that moment. But I think that’s a great representation of how we are feeling during this time. The days are long, how you feel can vary widely from day to day, not to mention also during the day. The tips I wrote in my March blog-ahhh sooooooooooooo long ago, we were so innocent- still hold. Don’t feel bad for what you need to do to get yourself through this (within reason of course-eat vegetables!). To quote every single email I’ve gotten in the last five weeks “this is an unprecedented time” and there are no guidelines as to how you should be spending it. Unless you are spending your days going out and coughing on people (please don’t do that) there is no way you can enter the “after times” and have someone say you spent your quarantine wrong. So take that nap, rewatch that TV show, eat that chocolate. There is only one way through this crisis and that is to go through it (thanks for teaching me that Charlotte Diamond!). I will leave you with this still incredibly underutilized but perfect gif again:
Stay safe and healthy my friends…and clean your phone. ?
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