Stay Inspired!
by Debbie Williams, Volunteer Co-ordinator
”During lockdown we are surely locked, but not down. Stay inspired!” Dr Prem Jagyasi
Perhaps easier said than done as we find ourselves in lockdown 2. What inspires you?
Are there things that you found in the previous lockdown that you can develop and explore further during this time? Maybe a new hobby that helps to ease stress and pass the time so that you feel less isolated? Maybe more family time, board games, word games, dressing up games, learning to bake, sew or create in some other way together - things that you’ve always thought you’d love to do as a family but never really had time for in everyday life.
Have you found ways to manage the additional stress that is around with concerns about health, finances, work. Perhaps you are working all through the lockdown period but finding workload tougher, worrying about friends and family even if you are feeling fortunate yourself within your own situation.
For myself I have a few creative hobbies that help me to lose myself and they are things that I can enjoy alone which is always useful at the moment. Creativity helps give a feeling of accomplishment and lightness as long as you are open-minded about your goals. I have learnt not to have too high an expectation of what my efforts will achieve and one of the most useful things I read when I started learning new creative hobbies was that there are no such things as mistakes, they are your own unique expression of something 😊
Nature is something else that I find inspiring and calming, though I know that’s not for everyone but it’s what appealed to me about the image here (apart from the new normal of seeing children’s toys wearing masks as a reminder of our current situation). How quickly we adapt – sometimes! Finding ways to stay inspired and hold on to whatever hope we can, however small it seems at times is the key to adapting to our circumstances whatever they may be. Change is often scary and the news does little to alleviate our fears – it seems that it either desensitises us because we get so used to hearing about it and yet our little safety bubble holds so it seems all the more unreal; or it terrifies us to the point of feeling bleak, anxious and afraid or too demotivated to access any of our potential support networks or mechanisms.
Thankfully there are lots of online support and resource sites that can be helpful at the moment that I’ve mentioned in previous posts and we also have a range of resources on our own web-site including some that are more specific to the Covid-19 outbreak and some that help in dealing with everyday stress: https://mite.org.uk
If you’d like to talk, you can contact us via email on info@mite.org.uk where you can request a call-back, we also have a range of resources on our web-site including some that are more specific to the Covid-19 outbreak: https://mite.org.uk
Our role is to help you to explore ways of meeting your own spiritual needs. What makes you feel valued, whole and at peace with yourself. We don’t have an agenda; we’re completely guided by you. If you prefer you can easily keep in touch with us on social media:
Facebook: @mitechaplaincy Twitter: @mitechaplaincy and @mitesthwarr