04 May 2020

It’s May 2020. We’re nearly halfway through the year. Already? Wow.

Flights have been grounded, backpackers are heading home, wine nights are happening over FaceTime and Nanna isn’t coming over for dinner or Sunday lunches any more.

Suddenly there’s no Saturday night pub crawls or festivals to look forward to, gigs have been cancelled and sports have been put on hold. Actually, it kind of feels like the whole world has been put on pause.

I’ve been coming to terms with the fact that the next six months of this year, all the plans I was anticipating, have crumbled. And I know I’m not the only one, as virtually the whole world is realising that this year really isn’t going how any of us expected it to.

It’s totally okay if this is affecting you way more than you thought it would, because global uncertainty definitely has a way of shaking up how we’re feeling.

Finding your footing right now may be hard; especially as your routines have changed and you’re trying to get into some work-from-home routine, or looking for the best way to pull yourself out of bed for your 9am lecture on Zoom.

Here’s something I’ve been finding comfort in - everything we are experiencing now is unprecedented. And you are completely valid in feeling a bit lost, or searching for ways to cope. So find some normalcy in the mundane things at home and allow yourself to feel a bit uncertain.

Give yourself some space to breathe, apply for an extension for that looming uni deadline, put your favourite outfit on even if you’re only walking from your room to the kitchen and back, have toast for every meal.

Give yourself some time to journal, scream into a pillow and get your feelings out from inside your head so you have a bit more space in there.

Move a bit every day, break up your study/work with a little boogie in your undies or a quick yoga flow may be a good way to feel a bit more alive in your body.

Schedule a few things in your day too, so that each day doesn’t just feel like a looming cloud of uncertainty where ‘you-should-probably-do-something-productive,’ but you actually have something to look forward to to give your day some structure. Maybe it’s calling a friend to check in with them, or a walk outside (keep your distance, you know the drill). Heck, even schedule a few episodes of your favourite show on Netflix if that’ll bring you some comfort.

Eat good food. Then allow yourself some balance and have some ice-cream and chocolate for dessert.

You don’t have to have it altogether right now. And don’t feel like you need to have your sh*t together once this whole thing settles down either.

Hang in there and remember there is a world on the other side of all of this - where you can hug your friends for as long as you want, go to gigs, create memories at festivals, get loose at pub crawls and travel the world. We’ve got this.

Written by Alexandra Wilson