Living In Lockdown: Fall In Love With Yourself Again

Yes, another lockdown themed post, and if I’m totally honest I kinda like the idea of writing typing down mind farts onto my blog it really clears my mind and lets me move forward with though processes. So, low and behold, I’ve kind of created a little (unplanned) feature and until we are out of lockdown, safely, I will continue to feature.

Anyhow, moving swiftly on…

Unless you are a key worker I am assuming you have quite a bit of spare time on your hands, am I right? Of course I am! There’s nothing to do!

Don’t you find it weird that whenever we are busy with work or general life commitments we complain we never have a minute to ourselves, but as soon as we can have all the time in the world we complain we have nothing to do… Seems like we are never happy with what we have got eh? Typical!

I’ve been putting my time to good use recently and I’ve been focusing on myself a little bit more than I would usually and I feel so much better for it, and who knows, when we get out of lockdown maybe, just maybe, I will have a new found confidence in myself – well one can only dream!

1. Make use of your daily outdoor exercise allowance and take yourself off for a walk. Just because the term “exercise” is used doesn’t mean you have. to drag yourself along to an assault course. You can just go for a leisurely stroll around you estate or somewhere you know will definitely be crowd free and let your mind wander and daydream.

2. Use your free time by bettering yourself with a new skill or take up an indoors hobby you have always wanted to do, but never had the time to, previously.

3. Zone out for a good hour or so reading. I’m not a massive fan of reading because I tend to completely zone out and end up daydreaming, or I have trouble concentrating and then I have to read the same line about six times before it sinks in. But, reading is something I’d love to love so perhaps now is the perfect time for me to zone out from the real world and life in my head for a couple hours a day.

4. When you wake up, look at yourself in the mirror and remind yourself that you can get through today, and ultimately, you are one day closer to getting back to reality.

5. Look after your hair as if your life depends on it. I know it’s tempting to change your hair when you’re going through a tough time, but if you just stick it out and hold on until all of this is over, you will thank yourself – and so will your hairdresser! Instead why not use some hair masks and give your hair and scalp some much needed TLC? I used the Body Shop’s Banana hair mask that I got for Christmas as well as their shampoo and conditioner, and oh boy my hair has been silky soft ever since!

6. Make a playlist of your favourite happy songs and listen to it whenever you can. It’s scientifically proven that music lifts your mood, so hey, you can’t argue with science can ya?

7. Look after your skin even more than you would usually. I don’t know about you, but my skin is in an appalling condition recently. I’m breaking out left, right and centre, but my diet hasn’t changed what-so-ever. The main thing I am putting it down to is stress. I can’t really say I’m extremely stressed out, but this whole scenario is foreign and is very different to anything we have experienced before, so naturally our skin will take a bit of a beating just due to the changes and not really knowing what’s going on, or what will happen. I personally recommend the Skinkissed eye patches [GIFTED] they leave your under eye feeling refreshed, chilled and ready to take on the world!

8. Spend some time flicking through old photos to re-live happy memories from your past. Can you remember when photos were a thing from a developed camera and you had to wait to see how your holiday photo’s turned out? Long before the days of Instagram and photo editing apps to give you that sunset glow. It’s a better way to look back to a time before any of today’s problems existed – and if you have loads of photos you are guaranteed to spend hours flicking through!

9. Relax your mind by getting into a sleeping pattern. Getting enough sleep on a night really impacts on your performance and mood the following day. I know it’s tempting to stay up late, just because you can, but the next day it can leave you feeling lethargic and unenergised, which yep, put’s you in a grump grump mood!

I also wonder how long it will take me to take my own advice because boy I really need to start practising what I preach!