Yesterday I had the privilege of sharing wellbeing training with participants from all the world.

We were tasked with taking time to make some sense of the historic, tragic and tumultuous events of the past 18 months. To do this with a global audience was challenging - with many participants vaccinated and in situations where lockdowns were being eased, many more in situations where vaccines were in early stages and the disease was still widely at large. It struck me once again that the shadow of COVID still looms very large.

As we reflected on these events I explored how we could each take time to notice the signs of what’s been going on around us. MIND’s Five Ways to Wellbeing encourages us to “take notice” and one way we can do that is to be mindful of cultural changes or shifts and their impact on us and others.

An easy way to think of culture is to consider ‘the way we do things round here.’ There are ways we act, live and work which are culturally shaped. To give you an idea, the culture shaped around the Great British Bake Off (the tent, the presenters, the music, the tasks) has developed into a way of doing things which makes the show attractive and creates the feel for future shows.

During the COVID pandemic there have been a number of changes to the “way we do things.” The way we socialise and connect. The way we work. The way we protect our health. The way we handle sickness. The way we travel.

These types of changes can be hard to adjust to and have an effect on people. How do we make sense of them?

I asked the group three sets of questions…

Question 1: Who would you like to be in this time?

We often respond to change by thinking what shall I do, but this question is more about posture. How would I like to behave in these changing times? What characteristics would I like to exhibit? This can be aspirational - i.e. I know I’m not like this yet but I’d like to be.

One helpful idea is to think of an image or picture which sums up how you’d like to be in this time.

Last summer I began to notice Bumble Bees for the first time in detail. As I watched them flying from plant to plant I realised I’d like to be a bit like that - slowly and methodically completing a task that helps others and has a positive effect on the world around me. Now when I see a bee it reminds me how I’d like to be in this time.

Question 2 How can we be better out of this time?

I was deeply struck by an image from 2020’s Black Lives Matter protests. I was a sign that just said “be better.” We can all do that. Cultural changes always challenge us to be better people going forward than we were.

As these changes take place, how can we be better out of this time?

One way is to ask:

What new things do I want to keep? What things that have emerged during this time that I want to keep as regular practices or make sure they keep going as positive things in a tough time? For example, increased community connection, working slower or buying local may be good things to keep hold of.
What things do I want to leave behind? Have there been things or activities that COVID meant couldn't happen and that now you don’t really miss. Maybe the morning commute or air travel? Do you want to take this opportunity to leave those things behind for good?

If these questions are too tricky how about thinking what you hope is as we move into the summer of 2021. I asked each person to complete the sentence “my hope is …” - what would you write?