Acceptance
I’ve been pondering a message I received from a friend recently and it has highlighted to me the inherent risk of social media - it is so easy to make assumptions based on what people post.
What’s interesting is that he interpreted my recent posts as a reflection of me being in a good place. Unfortunately, that’s not entirely accurate.
While I’m doing okay, like a lot of people, isolation is slowly wearing me down. Even the most resilient people are showing signs of COVID fatigue (for those in other parts of the world, here in Melbourne, Australia, we have been in lockdown of some form since mid-March). Though I miss my friends and would love to give them each a big hug, I’m not hugely social so can satisfy that need virtually.
While the gym closures hit me hard every day, I’m finding other ways to de-stress. However, as time passes it’s the lack of ability to immerse myself in the healing power of nature that’s cumulatively making it harder to cope with the current situation. I am missing natural spaces terribly - the beach and forests specifically.
I console myself with the fact that I’m gainfully employed, and have a lovely home and gorgeous kids. Logically, I know I’m in a good place. But that doesn’t stop the feeling that something is missing.
I’m doing what I can within my circle of control (the aspects of my life that I have the ability to change) to emulate the benefits of being in nature.
Early in lockdown, I bought a beach landscape print to hang in what was once my dining room (and has now been overtaken as my husband's office). I’ve incorporated mindfulness about nature into my morning walk, combining my love of photography with the joy of watching the sunrise mark the start of another day.
I have focused on the effect of the changing seasons on the vegetation in my local community; taking in the turning of the leaves on the deciduous trees, the sparseness of their bare branches through winter, the emergence of the first spring bulbs, the budding of blossom on fruit trees and, most recently, the snow-like scattering of the blossoms as they make way for budding of new leaves. I’ve consciously tapped into the time of the bird calls in the morning as a sign of longer days and warmer weather as we transition into summer.
I’m following more landscape photographers on social media and spending more time with each of their photos as they come up on my feed.
I’m spending more time in my own garden, tending to the plants.
While these tactics are helpful, they are a poor substitute for wide-open spaces and the catharsis they provide.
Sometimes, however, we just have to accept that things are not what we want them to be.
I practice acceptance by:
Letting go of judgement; of berating myself for having more than many but still being dissatisfied
Actively turning negative thoughts positive through meditation and journalling. I truly believe there is a positive in every situation (sometimes you have to look long and hard to find it but it’s always there)
Acknowledging that I’m doing all that I can to fill the void
Reminding myself that though we are surrounded by uncertainty, this too shall pass
So, I will continue to work on strategies that are within my circle of control and wait for the abatement of COVID restrictions. (And remember that when I am quick to assume something based on what I see on social media, it’s really easy to get it wrong. The only way to really know what someone is going through is to ask).
