2021: The Year of Calm

Its pretty safe to say that 2020 as a year wasn't the best. COVID-19 brought about a tonne of problems for everyone; one being the creation of a world-wide lockdown. In England, we saw so many variations of lockdown that it was kind of hard to keep up. So it wasn't really surprising when articles started to come out of people experiencing declining mental health; from burnout by working from home to general anxiety and depression from an uncertain future.

For me, I very much dealt with burnout. Working from home meant it was very difficult to actually switch off, especially when the first month saw me sat on the floor of my living room rather than in a home office. When switching off from work wasn't the issue, it was the constant struggle to understand what the rules were for interacting with other people and how to navigate lockdown as safely as possible.

By the end of the year I was starting to find myself so mentally and physically exhausted that it was starting to affect my work and personal life. Therefore, as we came rung in the new year, I decided it was time to change, to spend the time at home to focus more on myself. So, here are a few of the things I'm going to do to renew and re-energise myself in 2021...

1. Taking more time for myself...

One thing I found during last year was I spent a lot of time letting a lot of the horrors of the year affect me. Most of my mental energy was used on worrying; whether it was about the new or small things happening at work, it was very draining and caused me a lot of unneeded stress.

Therefore, I'm vowing to take more time away from the confines of my office and taking a breather. This is going to involve a couple more minutes making a cup of tea, singing aloud in the kitchen to dispel some energy. That or sitting quietly in a room away from my laptop - I've found using Sundays as my "no screentime day" the perfect way to detach from the glare of laptop and phone screens.

2. Escaping the confines of the house...

This one kind of links in with the first, but a lot of anxiety I felt last year revolved around being stuck in the four walls of my home. Now, this isn't me saying I don't like where I live, but like many other people, it became very easy to spend an entire week wherein I hadn't left the house. This left me feeling very isolated and a little crazy most of the time.

To rectify this I'm going to be forcing myself to go on walks every day for at least half an hour. I say "force" because I've always actively avoided any form of exercise, basically I'm a very lazy human being. So, I need to get myself out of that mind-set and embrace the fresh air.

Hilariously, this was something I wrote about last year, whereby I realised walking wasn't as bad as I initially thought (see that here), I just need to go back to that person again.

3. Focus more on my writing...

Now, this one may come as a surprise seeing as I'm always posting on here. However, I also have an everyday job that doesn't involve writing. Recently, this job has been causing me to feel very burnt out and caused me to reflect on what I actually want to be doing with my life (one good thing of lockdown I guess).

An outcome of this is that I have become more determined to make a living from the one thing I love doing, writing. I've never been very good at planning, and I already do a lot of writing, so this is more a promise to become more active in making my writing better and sending off more pieces to get money from them.

4. Take more time for friends and family...

This one is a little trickier seeing as England is currently under it's third lockdown (in case I hadn't mentioned it already). Yet, as we made our way to the new year, I found myself feeling an awful sense of loneliness. This came as a surprise to me seeing as I'm a bit of a self-proclaimed hermit, and yet I desperately miss seeing my friends and family in person.

You may say, "but Joe, thats what zoom calls are for". I'm fully aware of that, but I've never found comfort in talking to the people I love over the phone and not in person. Its a very counter-intuitive way of thinking during a pandemic where you can't see people in person.

So, my goal is to get over myself and embrace the technology we have so easily available to talk more with the people I care about. I know it won't give me the same feeling I'd get from seeing people in person, but I need to understand that its better than not seeing them at all.

5. Spend each week focusing on at least one positive moment...

I'm taking a leaf out of my younger sister's book here. She very much values a positive mind-set and is always telling me to stop being such a realist or at the worst of times, horrifically pessimistic. Its something I've struggled with quite a lot, stemming from anxiety and not wanting to be disappointed by a foreseeable dilemma.

I've got a few ways I'm going to be doing this. One of which comes in the form of a notebook my fiance bought me for Christmas; it focuses specifically on calming and positive thoughts, giving me the opportunity to write down the positive moments from the past week. This might take time, but I'm hoping it will work.

Heres to 2021...

As a final note, I'll end this article with a few positive thoughts to get me and any who made read this going into the new year.

• No matter how bad things get in the New Year, understand that you have the strength to get through it and come out stronger.
• There is always a bright side to every bad situation, it might be a tad hidden, but taking time to find it is well worth it.
• Keep your head up, both metaphorically and literally; when I've been walking I'm making sure to keep my head physically up - it helps with posture and also leads to a more confident stride and eventual confident feeling.