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It’s a difficult time for everyone, with the Covid-19 outbreak bringing severe and unexpected changes to our lives, along with new concepts like ‘social distancing’ and ‘cocooning’.
Here at TheJournal.ie, we are launching a weekly Voices column, ‘Wellness Wednesday’, in which we feature advice and information from mental health professionals, yoga teachers, mindfulness practitioners and many more. We hope this weekly section will help you, our readers, navigate this unprecedented shift in how we live.
If you’re running daily online classes, meditations or creative outlets for people at home, we’d love to hear from you. Email your details to voices@thejournal.ie with “WELLNESS” in the subject line.
This week, Siobhán Murray, life coach and psychotherapist offers practical advice on how to cope with the changes:
TWO WEEKS AGO our lives were very different. Some of us were heading to work, kids going to school or college and every one of us was navigating the normal worries each of our lives held.
Two weeks later and we are navigating a very different world, a world that is changing on a daily basis. Our minds are being bombarded by and overloaded with information from not just our own country but from around the globe.
Last week was what I would describe as the ‘trauma’ – a busy, frenetic and frantic week. There was a mad dash to get home-office spaces set up and to get some level of routine going for children regarding schooling from home.
We went into battle mode with this virus and the focus for parents was how to entertain younger children that are now not able to go to a creche. We also had to process being let-go from jobs and to create a new way of living. All in a week! That is key here, you are being asked to create a new way of living, and one you didn’t choose or want.
So how exactly do you navigate this ever-changing world?
Firstly, we need to realise is that we are not robots. On an intellectual level, we may understand the changes that are happening around us, however, on an emotional level, we are still playing catch-up for the fast pace of what we are experiencing.
Fluid in our thinking
With all the advice on structure and routine (which is needed) we also need to be fluid in our thinking.
Fluid Thinking allows you to be adaptable to daily changes in your own personal routine and when you allow yourself to be adaptable in your thinking it allows you to be adaptable in your feelings.
It lets you acknowledge the rollercoaster of emotions but not to get caught and stuck in them. At moments like this, it is important to hear your thoughts and experience your feelings.
Fluid in our actions
If you have a structured plan for your day and it doesn’t go to plan, that’s ok! This is the most abnormal situation you have ever experienced, and therefore there is no right or wrong way to manage your day.
Having a basic routine i.e. breakfast, lunch, dinner and a short walk every day (if you can) is a good starting point, but don’t feel you need to fill every minute with things to do – you don’t.
Don’t overwhelm yourself with new things to do. If your day or week was already busy don’t feel you have to start an online course or clear every cupboard in the house. If you have lost your job acknowledge how you feel about it and then research what you are entitled to and how you can apply.
Avoid the pressure to be ‘perfect’
We live in a world where we tap into social media several times a day. Social media can be a wonderful tool, and the past week has shown how helpful a resource it can be, but it often pushes perfection on us and that can be an issue. No one’s life is perfect, so go easy on yourself in this regard.
If you don’t normally play board games with your family because it ends up with no-one speaking to each other, then don’t expect your family to suddenly become like a Disney movie.
Keep it simple, keep it basic, this may sound like a bizarre piece of advice but this will make sense in a few weeks – ‘set the bar low’.
This is a marathon without a finish line, it’s not a sprint so take a deep breath and realise that today you’re doing well and how you feel today is all you have to manage.
Siobhan Murray is a resilience/life coach and a psychotherapist. She is the author of The Burnout Solution, a book that offers a step-by-step guide to overcoming burnout.
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Matt a nice guy but he is the establishment and has a D4 bias. Read his vitirol against McGregor yet relatively silent on his mate Hook.
Yates comes from privilege as stated himself in his book. Privately educated the silver cutlery set from his mouth not just the spoon.
Banks good, unions bad, we have to pay for water ah sure give the government a chance….. same same same……. Social media will thrive with this insiders at the helm pontificating.
@John Stafford: Considering Cooper from Cork he done well for himself if he has embedded him in the D4 establishment.
@mickmc: reread my comment. You are extracting meaning where there is none.
The McGregor/ Hook difference is only one example where he suits a story to fit a ideology.
I have met Matt on numerous occasions he is a nice guy but he is full of bias. He defends power and often he defends the indefensible as he is a hack lacking journalistic integrity.
This problem is not confined to Matt and is not supposed to be a personal tirade just the awful state of journalism in this country.
Yates counts DOB as his personal friend.
Dead cat show.
To cut a long story short : you will not get debate here. You will get bias, propaganda and misdirection.
I am being too harsh here. I am sure TV3 are environment conscious and reckon that they can reduce their carbon footprint by asking fellow ” I want your land” Pat Kenny to give the lads a lift home after rehearsals.
Sure they live in the same direction, eat in the same restaurant s and covert in the same bankrupt circles.
Doing their bit for the environment.
@John Stafford: I will be giving this a miss. Don’t like either of them. They definitely won’t be filling Vincent’s boots.
Jobs for the boys as usual! What is News?
@Bernadette Purcell: How dare they get jobs jist because theyre popular and experienced.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: they are yawn material.
@Neal Ireland Hello.: Agree whole-heartedly. If you are in the national spotlight, you will have as many haters as supporters. Bernadette would prefer some long-time Dole mule to get the job, despite the fact they dont want to work.
@Larry Fitzwell: I’d say your surname refers to how well your lower orifice accommodates your head.
It will be a pile of S@$te no doubt, pretty much like every tabloidish tripe that comes out of TV3, the only successful programme ever made on this ghastly station was tonight with Vincent Browne. Matt and Ivan are no Vincent’s , it will be a train wreck, Matt probing the nicetees of his guests, Ivan trying to concut conspiracies/ controversies even from the most mundane guests.
@Joseph Dempsey: What is the point of you? Writing something off before you have seen 1 minute of it!!! Must be hard to live with all that bitterness inside you?
@Larry Fitzwell: god bless you Larry, is that it, is this all you can contribute? It would normally take 10 seconds of my time to respond to anything TV3 has to offer but I was busy warming my redibrex. As an aside perhaps you could name a single production of quality that has come out of this station? It’s nothing but a cheap advertising bill board. Your final inference re living with bitterness has a disturbing undertone so doesn’t merit comment but I can assure you I live a deliriously happy life.
Life is far to short to spend even ten seconds listening to them two posh boys.
I’m expecting a cringe fest
Let’s hope they stick to the current affairs and it doesn’t become a quasi sports affair…there is enough of that on st the weekend.
It sounds awful. Iwouldn’t be bothered watching. Two DOB employees, one an ex-Fine Gael minister.
For the love of god, does everything have to be called “Today” or “Tonight” or The Daily Tonight Show” or some combination of the above!
As someone who get up early in the morning I can’t see myself getting to see too much of it if it’s starting at 11pm
It’s on too late. Why do both RTE and TV3 schedule current affairs programs when most people are heading off for a night’s sleep. Why aren’t these programs shown earlier in the evening instead of feckin Frock Finders and other similar dross.
POLL:
Will you be watching? Come on predictable journal
Mick Clifford : the only man for he job,This pair it will be all cosy and chummy with a few insider barbs exchanged,well that’s showbiz folks.
Will Enda be the first Guest
They are obviously not targetting the workimg audience, the people who get out of bed early have to be in bed by 11
Hope you’re opinionated and as bullish as ever Ivan,not a watered down version
It is an American approach, with 2 questioners of different view points, the purpose of which is to create an entertaining polarisation of outlook.
It is current affairs as light, very light, entertainment.
Who will do the nasty old guff and blather, refelecting the voice of prejudice and anti rationality?
How about discussing the witch hunt that was George Hook where you can’t even voice your opinion on the radio.
I’m not a fan of either of them, I can’t even listen to them on the radio but I’ll have a look at the show and see how it goes.
Better that than “a table with four walking legs,” like I experienced at a seance one night. Straight up. I announced I wasn’t convinced and the whole thing was a scam. A few minutes later I felt the pressure of (heavy) wood nudging me. No pulleys or other devices were in evidence…
have your say