The New Normal

I wanted to write this post as we find ourselves muddling through the new normal and what is undoubtedly one of the strangest times we have ever lived through. A lot of my day-to-day work life is made up of talking about that dreaded C word (or the two dreaded C words…) so I thought best for my sanity not to mention it on here.

But with mass change comes mass change, and this doesn’t have to be a bad thing. As a society, we fear change, and I for one definitely have felt a lack of control over the past few months which I’ve struggled with. Yet, I’ve seen a lot of quotes that mention that we want to rush back to our normal life, but we need to assess what is worth rushing back to.

Since the lock-down started 8000 weeks ago (or 8, my sources tell me) we’ve had to become accustomed to a much slower pace of life, which isn’t necessarily negative and I for one definitely want to bring a new sense of appreciation for this ‘new normal’ when things go back to the way they were.

In this post, I wanted to talk about all the little things I have started to appreciate much more since my so-called ‘normal’ routine was altered.

We were forced to slow down, not by choice, but by law. But with this brought a whole new way of living for us. We pottered about our homes and learnt to work with our partners in the other room. We had lunches outside in the sunshine, listening to the birds chirping and went for long walks to clear our heads.

We took in the spring colours and appreciated the blue skies. We watched the seasons change and spent more time outdoors than ever before. We made memories in the sunshine, and we were thankful for the nature on our doorstep. We took the time to run outdoors and exercise in our homes. We tried to make the most of every day during this strange time.

We tried new recipes and learnt to cook with ease (or at least our partners did!). We re-created our favourite restaurant meals and had virtual dates with friends. We supported local businesses and enjoyed new dishes from the comforts of our own home. We fell in love with our partners over and over again and went back to basics.

We learnt to understand that the unknown can be scary, especially when it is out of our control.

We said hello to strangers and tried to find the good in every day. We were reminded to be kind, and that we are all in this together. We were scared, but that’s ok. We taught ourselves to be resilient in times of the unknown and turned to others when we needed to. We began to feel as though this was normal.

We took on challenges and raised money for charity. We watched as others made millions for those in need and became inspired. We felt like one community and after years of being torn apart, came together in the name of health and happiness.

We used technology to our advantage and caught up with loved ones virtually. We did more quizzes than we can even count and learnt things about our colleagues that we never normally could. We spoke to friends on the other side of the world and celebrated birthdays over apps.

We dreamt of holidays gone by and planned our bucket list trips. We thought about the dreamy, white sand beaches and where our next flight would take us. We let out imaginations run wild and became wanderlusters on a daily basis.

We knew that one day it would be over and we would never have this life back – but we were excited for the future. The new normal is becoming less scary by the day.

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