Has lockdown and all the confusing talk of tiers, travel bans and bubbles just been too difficult for you? Are you one of those people who lament the limitations we are all subject to and do you long for a return to some kind of ‘normal’?
No one at all can deny that 2020 has been a challenging year for many of us. Some people say that they have enjoyed being able to retreat from the world and have welcomed the chance to just be at home. For many of us however, the strangeness of not being able to do what we always do, to see friends and family and to be free to travel has been difficult to get used to not to mention the endless Zoom meetings. If someone had said at the end of 2019 that this would be how we would be living as we approached Christmas and the 2020 festive season, most of us would never have believed it. But it can’t be denied that, in among the hard bits, this year has given many of us the chance to think again about how we live and the choices we can make about our future. Self-care has become a bit of a byword and many of us don’t really give it much thought beyond the odd bubble bath or early night. However, we can all choose to live differently as we go forward into 2021. Yes, we can make those resolutions and set those goals but, we are also being invited to prioritise our own self -care. If this year has taught us anything it must be the importance of looking after our own physical and mental health. Remember the last time you were on an aeroplane and the cabin crew told you to put on your own oxygen mask in the event of an emergency before helping others. Consider this your emergency situation and invest some time and energy in looking after you. Here at Orrganise, circumstances this year have changed the way we work. We still offer face to face sessions but now work really effectively via Zoom or Facetime too. This means that carving out some ‘you time’ has never been easier, all from the comfort of your own home. If you want the gift of self care for you or for someone who you feel would really benefit from taking some time for themselves and building healthy new habits. Why not order a gift voucher now? Don't agonise, organise! It’s already pretty clear that Christmas 2020 is going to be very different from anything we have ever experienced before. In previous years, those old familiar songs would already have started filling the air in every shop or café up and down the country and we’d all have been grumbling that Christmas starts earlier and earlier every year and that it’s just not what it used to be. There was a feeling that, in time gone by, everyone was less materialistic and there was some magical meaning to the festive period instead of this craving for the latest games and gadgets, the overfull supermarket trolleys and the annual scrum to stock up on stuff that we definitely don’t need.
This year there will be no dashing around bustling city centres and most of us won’t be taking part in that annual shopping extravaganza. There will be no office parties, no visits to winter markets and no extended family gatherings. Instead, we are being invited to decide exactly how we want to mark this annual event in a new, scaled-down way. It’s interesting to note that the very people who complained every year about having to make all that effort are already worrying about how they are going to manage to see everyone and how they will replicate all the Christmases they knew before and lamenting that everything needs to be on a much smaller scale. It’s not at all surprising that there is anxiety and concern about having to give up on all those rituals, even if they weighed heavily in previous years. We all love a tradition and a routine and, when we can’t imagine what something is going to look like, it’s no wonder that we can feel anxious and unsettled. After all the turmoil, uncertainty and change we have experienced for most of this year, many of us are feeling anxious, flat and totally lacking in energy. A splash of glitter and sparkling lights could be just the thing to spread some much-needed cheer. While it can’t be denied that, for some people, 2020, will have brought such personal loss and sadness that Christmas is the very last thing they will want to think about. The chance to suspend reality for a few precious days gives us all the opportunity to just stop and appreciate the things in our lives that really matter to us. This year, I think many of us will really want to focus on the joy of putting up our sparkle and decking those halls with familiar decorations that have been packed away since January. When we stashed them away early this year, we could have had no inkling of how different life was going to look when we retrieved those familiar boxes from their storage places. As we take time to remember those family members and friends who are no longer with us and look forward to finding new ways to see loved ones on what has the potential to be one of our most precious festive seasons ever. Christmas 2020 has the potential to be different from anything that most of us will ever have known. But, as always, there is a bright side. We all have the opportunity to create exactly what and who we want to have around us this year. After the experiences of recent months, this might just be the perfect time to take a moment to say a heartfelt thank you for family and friends and to make positive choices about how we spend the festive season in a new, calmer way. Who knows, this new way of celebrating might even be so enjoyable that future Christmases will be scaled down too as we really appreciate the true spirit of the festivities. Don’t agonise… orrganise! |
Francine Orr
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