This week sees a grim milestone – that of the one year anniversary of the first lockdown being called. In those 12 months, 126,172 people in the UK alone have died from Covid-19.
These are ghastly statistics, and it is important that we stop, reflect and remember.
I am not going to dwell on this much, not because it isn’t important, simply because enough has been said already.
How do we recover and move forward?
This is a weird time as we start to reconsider re-entry into life and as we acknowledge the astounding achievement of the vaccination programme.
Even as I am writing this, my post arrived with my appointment for my own vaccination and that for MB next week. Yippee!
I know in my work as a life coach, I am never about giving answers or advice to those with whom I work.
However, what I often do supply are tools – regularly in the form of questions – to enable people to gain greater self awareness and then be empowered to make different choices.
What are some tools for our post Covid recovery?
There has been a lot on Twitter of late from the Action for Happiness people.
Simple, common sense and practical pointers to promote our happiness.
It strikes me that their 10 Keys to Happiness form a great framework for looking at some tools for our post Covid recovery. Tools that help us
- consider how we relate to others
- how we look after our own well-being, physically and emotionally
- gain greater awareness of how we are now
- understand and process what we have come through with Covid-19
- and thus be able to make good choices about how we move forward
This is not just about us being happier. This is about having tools to enable us and those around us to flourish. One year on from this pandemic starting, we have all changed. And how much do we need tools to help us and those round us flourish.
And how much do we need that now.
The first tool in our arsenal of keys to happiness is
Giving.
Random acts of kindness, giving of ourselves in lots of different ways, helping out others – all of this makes us happier and healthier.
The Random Acts of Kindness folk have a whole website here full of ideas and inspiration, which is a great place to start. Their whole ethos is to make kindness the norm, which is a lovely way to look at life.
There has been so much kindness evidenced over these past pandemic-dominated months.
And many examples of giving.
Just last week, Comic Relief Red Nose Day raised a staggering £52 million to support the lives of those in the UK and beyond.
On the one hand we hear stories on the news of the devastating effect of the pandemic on our economy and the increasing numbers of people out of work.
Financial loss and hardship are darker realities for many just now.
And yet, still people give to those more in need than themselves.
This level of often sacrificial kindness to me is the human spirit at it’s best. I believe we were created to be in relationship with others, and giving and receiving are fundamental aspects of relationship.
Helping others not only is good for them and helps them, but makes us feel happier and healthier too.
We can give time, energy, ideas, money, practical help.
And as we give of ourselves in any of these ways, we connect well with others, and build stronger communities. There is loads more on the science of how giving makes us happier on the Action for Happiness website.
Some ideas for giving as our first tool:
So this week, consider how you can give to those around you in small ways, to boost your own happiness and to those around you in their own happiness.
- Buy someone a wee unexpected gift
- Make something delicious and give it to your neighbours
- If you know someone who has lost a loved one to Covid-19, leave a bunch of daffodils on their doorstep or send them a card to acknowledge this anniversary
- Help someone out with a bill who you know is struggling financially
- Contact your hairdresser and pay for that hair cut you couldn’t have during lockdown
- Phone an elderly relative for a chat
- Send a student friend a care package of Easter eggs and a card
- Provide a listening ear to a friend in difficulty
- Play a game with your children on their terms, giving your full attention
- Send a card of appreciation and thanks to a teacher who has gone out of their way in this past term to support your child
- Shop in your local shops and order from small online suppliers not the big market-dominating ones.
- Perhaps consider someone who you would not normally consider thanking – the bin men, your local shop keeper, the receptionist at the hospital, the delivery driver.
What could you do? As we consider the first of our tools for our post Covid recovery, giving seems a very good place to start.