If you are alive and ok, then you have done amazingly well to survive Lockdown. Even if you did nothing; felt low and anxious during lockdown; cried almost daily out of fear, anger, worry and/or hopelessness; didn’t go for one walk, did not accomplish anything except the bare basics of cooking and showering on most days; you still survived lockdown. And that is massive. So pat yourself on the back on surviving a very difficult time in your life.
Some of you may have loved lockdown and accomplished all that you planned to do and more. Well done to you too.
And then of course there are those who are in-between. You enjoyed parts of lockdown, did not like other parts. Some days you felt great and motivated, other days, just doing the basics was a chore. Well done to you too.
Surviving lockdown was not a competition and we each did it our way – with the tools and resources at our disposal, with the people and tensions in our own unique bubbles. Therefore we cannot compare how Family A did so well and Family B accomplished nothing, therefore Family B are failures. That is not a fair measurement of tools and outcomes. It is like comparing fitness between an athlete and someone who can just manage walking to the letterbox and back. The effort, tension and the strain of walking to the letterbox for that person is so much more than the effort and strain that an athlete takes to run 5km.
So, however you survived lockdown, it is knowing you did survive - that is the accomplishment. Like our PM Jacinda Ardern has regularly told us throughout this period, is be kind – and that extends to being kind to yourself as well.
The first step in kindness towards yourself is STOP COMPARING YOURSELF TO OTHERS. You did and are doing the best that you can do with the skills, tools and resources that you have.
Take a moment and reflect on being kind to yourself here.