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Don't panic we are not quite in October yet...but this week I started thinking about turning back time and remembering some of the skills from my yoga toolkit I used during the COVID-19 lockdown here in France. Those 8 weeks feel like a distant memory, especially as the pace of life has intensified in the months since. This week I realised that I needed to look back at that time and check in to see if I am still incorporating those practices. As the change of season is upon us and we start to see nature readying for hibernation and sleepy days, it's time to get prepared!
I have used gratitude practice for many years, noting 3 things I feel grateful for each morning. During the confinement, I used an extended version, the gratitude hands - ten things that I felt thankful for in my life. Noting these down is quick and simple and has been shown to improve levels of happiness. I guarantee you can find something every day, no matter how small.
Journaling also featured heavily in my confinement tool-kit - writing down how I was feeling and setting myself an intention for the day ahead. By converting emotions to words on paper, a self-accountability mechanism was set and it felt even more important to try to be mindful about the way I approached each day.
Amongst the intense videoconference schedules (I know we all had them....) another practice I found useful was to think about who I wanted to connect with. Realising that your energy is not exhaustive and the need to set boundaries can really help to ensure that you connect with people who bring you joy and limit the number of negative interactions each day.
These are just a few ideas for keeping the day as mindful as possible. Perhaps you had other practices that helped to keep you focused and optimistic about the future. Whatever they were, take a few moments to think about them, why you used them and how you might continue to look to them to balance the wintery days ahead. Use the time of transition we see in nature as a prompt to awaken changes within yourself.
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