{"id":535,"date":"2021-07-14T12:15:47","date_gmt":"2021-07-14T12:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/?p=535"},"modified":"2021-07-27T10:45:57","modified_gmt":"2021-07-27T10:45:57","slug":"define-your-new-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/2021\/07\/14\/define-your-new-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"Define your new normal"},"content":{"rendered":"

[vc_row css_animation=”” row_type=”row” use_row_as_full_screen_section=”no” type=”grid” angled_section=”no” text_align=”left” background_image_as_pattern=”without_pattern” z_index=””][vc_column width=”2\/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1566406304942{padding-right: 10% !important;}”][vc_column_text]Is there a post pandemic Freedom Day?\u00a0\u00a0 Will it ever be pre-March 2019 \u2018normal\u2019 again?\u00a0 The answer seems to be no.\u00a0 Some\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>aspects of our lives are returning\u2026and along with this the pressure to \u2018do\u2019 and get back to the way it was before.\u00a0 But is that what you want?<\/p>\n

Living in what we hope will be the last phase of the pandemic I reflect on the last year and my time.\u00a0\u00a0 Time spent on many simple activities \u2013 reading, playing games, cooking for ourselves, walking, being in nature, seeing a small number of people, not travelling, not rushing, taking time for kindness, being bored sometimes.\u00a0 This time reminds me of my childhood of no computers, a black and white, 4-channel TV, no social media, no money to travel, eating out only very occasionally, no rushing, noticing the rhythm of days and seasons more keenly, finding creativity in boredom.\u00a0 \u2018Go find <\/u>something to do\u2019<\/em> my mother would say when I whined of nothing to do and no one to do it with particularly on long summer days.\u00a0 And usually I did find something.\u00a0 But sometimes I just lay in the hammock in the garden looking at the trees or I went exploring alone in the forest nearby \u2013 day-dreaming.\u00a0 In short there was LESS \u2013 less running around, less keeping on top of things, less expectation, less pressure, less stress. But there was MORE too \u2013 more time, more patience, a more manageable pace, more creativity, more reflection, more space to just \u2018be\u2019.\u00a0 Having it NOW wasn\u2019t really an option.\u00a0 Waiting for it was.<\/p>\n

Working with clients I notice a lot of impatience with themselves, others and life in general and a reluctance to work with this feeling.\u00a0 I-can\u2019t-stand-it-ness is so prevalent and connected to a demandingness about how people believe things should or must be.\u00a0 Our busy \u2018have it now\u2019 lives reinforce this. Part of the work I do is to help clients become more flexible, less frustrated, more tolerant of themselves and others, releasing control and excess of expectation.\u00a0 This means sometimes slowing things down, learning patience and letting go of how you expect things to be to find other solutions.\u00a0 It is about a philosophy of living in a more emotionally sustainable way.<\/p>\n

And while I noticed myself in periods of anxiousness and despair over the last year there has been a connection to the simplicity and patience of my childhood that has really been a revelation. What if I could live more simply?\u00a0 What if I could create more time to just be and explore? \u00a0What if I travelled and ate out a bit less?\u00a0 What if I kept connected more to those I care for?\u00a0 What if I could live more in the moment?\u00a0 I can choose to take my time as I reconnect to life, but I am not sure I want my life to be as it was before.<\/p>\n

During this last year what have you learned about yourself, how you live, how you want to be?<\/p>\n

What can you continue?<\/p>\n

What value might this approach bring to your life?<\/p>\n

You can take your time.\u00a0 You have choices.\u00a0 You can define your new normal.[\/vc_column_text][\/vc_column][vc_column width=”1\/3″][vc_widget_sidebar sidebar_id=”sidebar”][\/vc_column][\/vc_row]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Is there a post pandemic Freedom Day?\u00a0\u00a0 Will it ever be pre-March 2019 \u2018normal\u2019 again?\u00a0 The answer seems to be no.\u00a0 Some\u00a0aspects of our lives are returning\u2026and along with this the pressure to \u2018do\u2019 and get back to the way it was before.\u00a0 But is that what you want?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":537,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,11,3],"tags":[5,18,12,19,13],"class_list":["post-535","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-coaching","category-resilience","category-wellbeing","tag-coaching","tag-growth","tag-resilience","tag-self-care","tag-wellbeing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=535"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":554,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/535\/revisions\/554"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/537"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=535"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=535"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.illuminate.co.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=535"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}