It still doesn’t seem quite right
It’s November 15th, 2 weeks until the beginning of summer and 6 weeks until the end of 2021.
According to one of our biggest newspapers, over 90% of the eligible population in Australia has been fully vaccinated. Our borders are comparatively open. We can go to the pub, the movies, the beach, the hair dresser.
And yet, …
We’re not back at what was ‘normal’. Certainly a look at my BOM app this morning confirmed that: 3.6 degrees, with a felt -10 and 100 km/h gusts of wind. Seems more like a US winter, than an Australian spring.
It does, however, seem representative of where we are as a society. Not there yet, with “there” being whatever we and each of us deem to be normal. The Blue Mountains, usually overflowing with tourists this time of year, are still fairly quiet. The influx of tourists anticipated after the opening of Greater Sydney and regional areas hasn’t arrived yet. I still haven’t met with my friends from outside my LGA and I continue zooming with my clients. Continued social distancing, pulling out the check-in app and vaccination status has become the new norm.
I have however, courageously and apprehensively, booked a flight to Germany to visit my family and especially my mother. I missed her 80th birthday last year and I promised I’d make it up to her this year – if somehow possible. What should be a time of excitement has turned into a research project to make sure I understood and met all the requirements (which may change at short notice as all updates caution me). I am most looking forward to coming back to Australia, because that would mean success in having navigated all the pit falls and actually making it back (instead of being stranded abroad). How back to front does that seem? Trepidation where there should be joy?
Norms, standards, known entities and even boundaries create our comfort zone. Creating a new normal is difficult and challenging. And yet, adapting and learning new things makes us grow. New skill sets, new mindsets, new opportunities.
Remember when you learned how to ride a bike? Initially, it really challenged you and felt outside your comfort zone – wobbly, unstable, un-save. Soon, though, you got better at it. And then you realised you could go further and faster with your bike than you could walk. At some stage, cycling became normal, you could just get on a bike and ride. No thoughts as how to keep balance, use the brakes or change gears. Perhaps today, you are using this skill set to raise money for a charity.
While it will take time until things start to seem ‘right’ again, there are some things you can do to make this transition easier.
1. Get clear and comfortable with what you can control. Check out the worksheets on Circles of Control, Influence and Concerns here
2. Try a mindfulness practice like the Lake or Mountain Mediation here
3. Contact me about “Wellbeing in Nature” to recalibrate your comfort zone or my workshop on “Letting Go and Welcoming In” here