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RENEW: Coping with change Providing simple tools to help renew you in a post COVID-19 world

What is Renew?

As we all navigate the pandemic and look to rebuild a sense of normality, routine and restore our lives that are potentially very different from before, it is important to remember that each one of us will have been impacted by COVID-19. Our wellbeing, our mental, emotional and physical health will have been impacted.

Renew is a series of short development sessions designed for adults which you can do when and how best suits you. It has three key parts: an overview to Learn about the theme, some key content to Engage with; video, blog or something else and then something to Practice to help you develop the tools and skills needed to renew you. Each session should take no more than 30 minutes.

LEARN | ENGAGE | PRACTICE

For more information about Phase, who we are, what we do and why we are passionate about helping you to have the tools and skills needed to navigate this new normal, then visit our website phase-hitchin.org

Learn: Coping with change

“Change is the only constant in life” - Heraclitus

Where we find ourselves now is a time of transition, between the old way of life pre-covid and a new way of life that is emerging but not yet known. Here in lies the anxiety…the unknown. Our brains like to be able to picture and to plan in order to help us feel in control and therefore safe. So, in the absence of these certainties, we might find ourselves feeling a little lost or overwhelmed or trying to cling to our old ways of doing life. It is possible to experience peace without knowing all of the answers but it requires letting go – of our attachment to plans and expectations, to old ways of doing things – it requires an acceptance of the reality of where we are now and it requires an openness to the opportunities and possibilities of a different future. And all of this requires huge amounts of grace and patience for ourselves because we are navigating something that none of us have faced before.

The thought of going through this process and embracing the “new normal” might be triggering a lot of resistance in us, and understandably so. We are creatures of habit and familiarity and we can easily become really attached to our ideas of how things should be and what success looks like, fostering a belief inside us that life will only have value if “x” works out in this way. Right down to the little everyday details and standards and routines that we are still trying to force into place even though they no longer fit. It just creates a tension and uses up a huge amount of energy that we could be instead investing somewhere else…like taking care of our wellbeing to get us through this challenge!

Mindfulness is a great tool that is proven to be beneficial for your mental and emotional wellbeing, and it is one that helps us in this process of accepting reality without any judgement of whether it is good or bad. To practise mindfulness is to make yourself fully aware of the present moment and to keep returning to the present moment every time your thoughts wander off or start creating narratives about what is happening. In the present moment is where peace can be found and that is what we need now more than ever, when it feels like there is little we can control or predict about the future.

Within mindfulness is also an acceptance of this idea that change is constant so each moment will pass. This is a helpful reminder when we are struggling with the here and now… the situation we find ourselves in and the feelings we have now will also change.

Whatever our circumstances and experience of the pandemic, we are all facing our individual challenges of what this change in life will look like for us. The world was accelerating at such a speed, but it suddenly stopped, slowed down and has now pivoted. Some external and internal adjustments are needed. Give yourself a chance to figure out what adjustments those are for you and be realistic in your expectations of what you can achieve in this transition period. This is the time to offer yourself and those around you heaps of compassion and understanding.

Engage

Here is a great article from Mindful.org that talks about how to find your way when the path is unclear

This blog takes about 5-10 minutes to read.

Practice

  • What is in my control? Focus your time and energy on the things that are in your control. Use this useful control circles activity to explore control
  • Mindfulness meditation. Try a mindfulness meditation by using an app like Headspace or Calm maybe a daily practice like this this could form a part of your new routine.
  • “I will cross that bridge if I come to it” Try saying this to yourself everytime you notice yourself projecting into the future and trying to solve every problem before it happens. Remind yourself of all the “bridges” you have crossed before and trust that you have the resources you need.

Credits:

Created with images by geralt - "change board door" • Alexas_Fotos - "light bulb energy nature" • silviarita - "dandelion umbrella sky" • DariuszSankowski - "old retro antique"