Hello everyone!

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful week since my last post, despite the new lockdown measures being announced here in the UK.

I think this second lockdown has hit a lot of people very hard, and to some extent it has definitely affected me already. I’ve recently started my midterm exams and to be in lockdown during it has somewhat increased my stress levels and made it a bit hard to focus. I hope that all of you who are in the UK right now, or in a lockdown abroad, are staying safe and taking care of yourself. Taking some time to focus on your mental and physical health during this lockdown is so important.

Seeing as there has been a lot of stress and negativity surrounding this current lockdown, I wanted to focus on the more positive aspects of it that I’ve both experienced myself and from what I’ve heard from the people around me.

This lockdown could be a great way to get the rest that you’ve been needing. Commute may be minimised for a lot of you now that some work environments have started working from home again, and hopefully this could give you that extra couple of minutes of sleep in the mornings. It could also be a great way for you to spend some time with the people you live with or if you have free time available throughout the day, you could do a group zoom call with all of your friends and family.

Seeing as we’re allowed outside on walks, it could be a great opportunity for you to start that little bit of daily exercise. Now… I am very guilty of always making excuses when it comes to exercise and going on walks, but the winter is fast approaching and the sun is going down a lot earlier, so I am going to try and put in some of the effort to get that daily bit of exercise in every couple of days before the sun sets.

Another possible positive is that these lockdown measures may help us to have a somewhat normal Christmas/ New Years season. Of course we never know what is actually laying ahead of us and we don’t actually know the official end date of this lockdown, but if we all try and stick to the regulations and rules, we could hopefully be back to normal in a couple of weeks/months.

In an effort to make the time spent inside feel somewhat useful, try catching up on all of that work that you’ve been putting off, or fill in those placement applications that scare or even just try to find a new hobby or continue the ones that you started before the school year started. It is so so important to keep busy during these times, otherwise being pent up inside can feel that much more restrictive and overwhelming.

It is also going to be very important that you talk to someone when you’re struggling. Please, please, please do not stay quiet about your situation if you are struggling. Reach out to your friends, family, people on your course or a professional if you are struggling. Your mental health is the absolute priority over everything else and please take time to take care of yourself. This current situation is tough and it has affected a lot of people in so many ways, but the reality is that it cannot last forever. There will come a time when we are out of this storm and we will see better days. Please stay hopeful, stay healthy and keep working hard on the things that matter most to you.

You are capable of making it through this and you’ll come out of it so much stronger than you thought you would.

That’s all from me for this week!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, full of productivity and rest.

See you next week 😁