Feeling a bit scunnered this week.
And speaking to several folk over the last few days, I am not alone. There is a communal sense of feeling a bit flat, quite down, emotionally deflated with the lack, the loss, the loneliness of ongoing restrictions.
And even though many of us are busier than ever, perhaps also a pervasive sense of being a bit bored. Not that we don’t have plenty to do, but the grinding same-ness of it is wearing us down.
A friend recently observed that her dog hates her laptop. He associates it with taking her away from him, taking up her time, occupying her attention in the living space that used to be for fun and relaxation and has now become an office. Whenever she is writing or on Zoom, he paws at her hand to get her away from the machine that seems to take up so much of her time.
I love that dog.
We are all fed up. But what to do?
Our options are somewhat limited at present, and this is a large part of the problem.
But there is hope in simply having fun.
I am aware that simply advocating having more fun might seem naive at best and deeply misguided and patronising at worst, depending on your personal circumstances.
But bear with me.
[No, I don’t see any bears either…..sorry, family joke.]
There are simple ways we can choose to have fun, despite the restrictions. And I am learning that in some ways, having fun is a mindset as much as a practice.
More on mindset and it’s power over us here and here.
This goes back to what I was musing about a few weeks ago about taking responsibility for what we put in our heads and what we think about.
When we fill our minds with all that is negative, and focus on how hard and unpleasant this is, that then becomes our lived experience. Of course, I am not saying that all the negative stuff can just go away with some positive Pollyanna style thinking.
But in small ways, and in small steps we can find ways of having fun in the midst of all the restrictions and negativity.
We are surrounded by snow currently.
This led to a late evening, dark and crazy snowball-fight-cum-walk-round-the-block two evenings ago. One of us was pyjama-ed under the jeans and wellies, which just made it more of an adventure.
Yesterday was a day off for MB, and coincided with school half term. A glorious sunny day plus lots of snow and a number of our neighbours being out and about culminated in a crazy street wide snowball fight (all socially distanced of course, which made the likelihood of me hitting anyone even less than normal).
And then a sledging trip to the local park.
Spontaneous, silly, competitive (just me then) and rewarded by hilarity, a plethora of wet things hanging over the bath, a stiff arm and lots of hot chocolate.
Any other plans for yesterday were shelved to allow us to take full advantage of doing something…..
…different.
Yippee!
So what ways are there for you to be having fun this week?
How can you choose to see even the most trivial of activity as an opportunity to have fun?
In this house, fun over the last few days has comprised Mario carts and Just dance on our old second-hand wii, painting walls with an asymmetrical stripe, gluing and sticking with a hot glue gun and some beach glass, long discussions about what our Desert Island Discs tracks would be and a few tickle fights. None of it has cost any money. The loft has been raided, things have been recycled or upcycled or rediscovered.
And what is interesting is that we have tried things that pre-first lockdown, we probably wouldn’t.
But now, a combination of running out of any other options, being more confident in our creativity, and a slightly crazed cabin fever has produced a more have-a-go attitude which is …well…fun.
I have heard of families of grown adults playing hide and seek in their house. There has been a fair bit of den building in a flat down the road from us.
Much of this is seemingly inconsequential, given the serious situation our city, country and world are in. But having fun keeps us sane, keeps us grounded and there is good evidence to point to the benefits of it for our well being.
And at the moment, when there is so much that we cannot do, finding ways of having fun is something that we can.