I don’t know about you but during the twists and turns of the last couple of weeks, I’ve found my thoughts and emotions constantly reacting and changing. I’ve had moments of thankfulness. I’ve thrived in the sunshine and been outdoors more than I have for a long time. I’ve treasured moments lying on the ground watching ants with my 3 year old because I’m not rushing to do anything else just now. But I’ve also had moments of sadness and grumpiness because my world has become a lot smaller. I’m sad that I may not be able to go on my holiday. I’m gutted for family and friends whose weddings have been cancelled. I’ve laughed. I’ve stayed in bed longer than I should have. I’ve ran with a smile on my face. I’ve cried, on Zoom, to my work team.
And I can only imagine that there will be more emotion in the months to come. We all know that Coronavirus is going to be a life altering pandemic.
But today I’ve been reflecting on the fact that there’s opportunity in that to, isn’t there?
Opportunity to learn how we do life in a different way. Opportunity to discover what we value and what that looks like when life doesn’t look like what we expected. Opportunity to slow down. Opportunity to love, beyond what we thought we were capable of. Opportunity to develop a new sense of community. Opportunity for businesses to change the way they operate. Opportunity to connect in new ways that we haven’t done before. I could go on.
There’s a brewing question in my mind of how can I use this time well and not just allow it to pass me by?
Today I realised that an important part of that is reflection.
My colleague talked this week about humble listening. I like that phrase.
He was talking about humbly listening to one another, but I wonder if there’s something about humbly listening to ourselves too. Allowing ourselves to feel different emotions, to have good days and bad days, to be joyful, to be angry. And in those moments, pausing to listen to ourselves and trying to understand why we feel or think the way we do. What is the motivation behind it? Where has that thought come from?
In doing so we can come out of this time better understanding ourselves and living in greater connection with ourselves. For those of you who have been following us for a while, you’ll know that we believe that connection with self is an important part of our wellbeing.
So each week we’re going to post a new question and we’re wondering if you’ll join us in answering it. Pausing for a few minutes every weekend to humbly listen to yourself - and perhaps one another if we make time to share. I wonder what we’ll learn about ourselves during this process?
