Happy Friday everyone ... or is it?

However, it got me thinking that maybe Friday maybe a day of dread for some. That the faces on the screen may be the only interaction they may have and now its two days of loneliness and isolation. Work may be some peoples saviour, it gives us something to focus on to take our minds away from other worries and anxieties that we may have, keeping busy having noise to stop those unwanted thoughts from razzing around in your head but no time to talk as busy busy busy….then it all stops for 2 days. What will occupy us now? There are of course lots of helpful suggestions out there; go for a walk, listen to some music, read a book… the helpful tips are endless, but what happens when you can't muster up the energy to do or concentrate on any of them?

I’ve certainly been there. I love my yoga but at some points of this pandemic, I was way too fidgety to lay down and be still or lacked the focus to read a book for longer than 5 minutes at a time and then rereading the same paragraph over and over again as it just wasn’t going in!

So, what did I do… well I talked to my good friend about it, then to a couple of trusted colleagues at work and found that this was completely normal and OK?  As with many things once a thought is spoken out loud it can be heard, then acknowledged, and then finally accepted. This brought me some space, just a little air to take some little steps.

 I am almost too embarrassed to share but as a child, I loved Enid Blyton and The Far Away Tree, with all the different characters like Moon face and Silky and reading about all the different lands that visited the top of the tree. So, I went onto my library app and found it was now in audiobook format- result!  I sat and listened to their adventures some fun and some definitely not so , I even donned some headphones and walked and listened, the escapism was fantastic and more importantly, it made me smile, even laugh at times, that was what I had been missing.

There will always be good days, bad days, and lots of mediocre days, but please allow yourself to do what it needs to do, and most importantly remember to be kind to yourself and look out for others around you. Your smile may be the thing that makes someone else’s day a whole lot brighter.