I woke up this morning and picked up my phone, I always wake before my alarm (unless I forget to set it!). First thing, check my socials and emails before I start my day.
LinkedIn: Some great applicants from a job I posted yesterday 🍾
Instagram: Not much there – I keep forgetting to post 🙄
Facebook: My memories came up from 1 February, 2020 😥
On 1 February, 2020 I was spending the weekend with some lovely friends in London. We’d rented an apartment in Covent Garden for a special occasion and were going to Petrus for dinner. Life was good. I smiled at the memories.
I then started to feel anxious. This was a month before lockdown. We had freedom, we were carefree and optimistic about my wedding later that year. We celebrated this forthcoming event at Petrus.
Just over month later, we were locked down, two months later, my dad died, the wedding never happened because of continually rearranging, my best friend who was with me that weekend and my step mum got breast cancer. Now I’m feeling really sad. How can a lovely memory make you feel so sad?
This is where the coping mechanisms kick in. I can’t change what’s happened. It wasn’t in my gift to change anything. I quickly readjust those feelings. I’ve got so much to be grateful for. If the path of life was completely in our gift, nothing bad would happen, we would all live in the Bahamas… you get what I’m saying.
So how do I cope with those feelings? I get asked this question all the time when mentoring women. “How do you cope with setbacks?” I always start with “THIS WILL PASS”. Always. Because most of the time it does. When it does pass, things are often different. Nothing stays the same forever. I accept that. I plan new things and try to do things that I’ve put off because I’ve been too busy.
In lockdown, I often wondered if we would ever go to concerts or sit in restaurants without restriction. Thankfully we do and each time I’m out I always take a little moment to be grateful for freedom. IT WILL PASS…