Do you feel like you’re Riding the Rollercoaster of life?

 Like one minute you’re doing just fine and enjoying the ride and the next minute you just want to get off? You’re not alone. Let me ask you something

How are you doing? I mean really, how are you doing? 

The more people I’ve asked this of recently, the more I’m hearing that people feel like they’re riding a bit of an emotional rollercoaster at the moment. Like some of the time they’re ok and feeling like they’re coping well, and then suddenly there’s a lurch or a twist and they’re wanting to retreat to the sofa or the garden. I’ve felt the same. 

There’s been days when I’ve been able to tackle things and other days when chosing which colour nail varnish to wear has been about all I can manage. On really bad days I’ve not been able to manage  even that. So if you’re feeling a similar feeling I just wanted to say that you’re by no means alone. 

There’s been a lot of cliches being thrown around like ‘we’re all in the same boat’ (thankfully we’re not all in the same boat or it would a) have to be a pretty big boat and b) it would probably sink! 

We’ve all been given a similar thing to deal with but as we’re not coming from exactly the same place, we don’t have the same resources available to us. 

For some people staying at home will be completely normal, I know some people have life-limiting conditions that prevent them from going out or going out often. For others it will be a complelety new experience. For some people it will be welcomed. I know that before the lockdown happened I was tired to my bone and so when I was told to stay home for a while I embraced that as there was so little time in my life when I was able to do that. 

Facing new challenges

Staying at home brought new challenges. I was used to leaving the house frequently, I was used to seeing my lovely clients, I was used to just popping out and getting a coffee or meeting friends at a restaurant for a meal. Or just nipping to the library to get a new book. Or to go for a swim.

So to stay at home, felt on the one hand really good but then again it also felt weird. I ended up feeling a bit like Shroedinger. I wanted to stay home but go out at the same time. It made no sense! 

At first I found I needed to fill my days with things. I completed a very short Psychology course, I created a cooking website, I attended online networking meetings, looked online for Yoga classes, I tried an online Belly Dance class (which was great fun). I even started listening to a French Radio Station to improve my rather rusty French. But then, after a while,  I found I was tired. Physically, emotionally, mentally tired.

Every time I looked on the internet someone seemed to be shouting at me to do this, do that, do something else. I felt like I had every single item of electrical equipment in the whole house, on all at the same time. 

Can you imagine what it felt like? Imagine having all the radios on playing different stations, the microwave binging in the corner, all the tvs on full blast, the washer on spin cycle. A power drill buzzing. That’s how it felt when I looked at the internet with all that noise. So then I realised that maybe this wasn’t what I needed to do. I didn’t need to listen to all the noise from the internet, I didn’t need people telling me what I needed to do, because only I knew what I needed to do.

What I did need to do was to go with the flow of how I was feeling day to day. I didn’t need to feel like I had to be doing something constantly. Eventually I figured out that it was ok to do nothing sometimes. Some days I needed two naps and I realised that that was fine too. Things feel better now that I’ve realised (as someone put it the other day somewhere on the internet!) that this is a ‘pandemic not a productivity contest’ Now that I’ve realised that actually no matter how I’m feeling day to day, this too shall pass, things are feeling a lot calmer. 

Over to you!

I’d love to hear how you’re coping, what your experiences have been and what has worked for you. Please leave me a comment in the comments box below or feel free to email me at in**@sa*********.uk it will go straight to my inbox and be completely confidential.