Hello readers Happy New Year. How are you surviving another year with a pandemic? How was your past year? An easy answer could be ‘good’ or ‘ok’, which could be true for some of you, but for me the answer is not as simple as one word.
I am going to be honest with you, with a Pandemic hanging over our heads in 2021. Last year for sure was not what I would call an easy year. But if you are reading this today or in the future I am grateful that you and I lived to see another day. For this post I thought I would try something new, I am going share with you the some of my highs and lows of the past year.
My Lows
The pandemic really affected my mental health in the past year. The biggest contributing factor were the multiple lock downs that occurred throughout 2021. I consider myself an independent person and having restrictions set in place that limited where I could you was mentally very hard to deal with. Our minds has an incredible ability to handle new situations, but sometimes the repercussions are negative and if you are not very careful these could have a lasting effect.
For me this resulted in a health scare. While, mentally I seemed to be adjusting to living in Pandemic pretty well. I did not realize how poor mental health was becoming, until it negatively started affecting my physical health as well. But even then, I was no longer listening to my body and what it was trying to tell me. My body showed to symptoms that I dismissed as ‘stress’ due to the lock down, however this was not the case. Luckily I was able to avoid hospitalization and could recover through a few months of medication.
I have learned that even though we as humans have great capability to adapt, we also have to remember that our body and our mind is not indestructible. We need to listen to our bodies because poor mental health can negatively affect our physical health and vice versa.
My Highs
In 2021 I did also had some pretty incredible moments. Even though I had experienced a negative side effect of the Pandemic one of the positive effect was having the ability to work remotely. As an introvert, I loved the idea of working from home. Not because I dislike my co-workers or that I do not like the social aspects of interacting at work. But for me working remotely offered the opportunity to have a better balance between my alone time and my social time during working hours. Also described in this BBC article called: Why introverts excelled at working from home. I could even go as far to say that working remotely could have been a contributing factor in my promotion this past year.
Another highlight of 2021 was that I was able to travel to Canada for my holiday. This country has been on my bucket list since I was a teenager. It was really a dream come true. At the start of the holiday it did feel strange, but also fascinating to see a big metropolitan city like Toronto that is the most populous city in Canada not buzzing with people and nightlife. You would not believe, but for me this calm, quiet holiday was one of the best holidays I have ever had.
Strolling in the streets of Toronto and Montreal with mostly locals and without a crowd of people holding up cameras left and right. Being able to dine in a restaurant that is not filled over the maximum capacity, not being trampled by a stampede of people when using public transportation is in my opinion a super relaxing experience. It reminded me why in the past, why I would feel super exhausted when returning home after visiting a new city or country. When I came back from Canada, I felt happy, refreshed and energized. Check out my Instagram, link here for more pictures of my holiday in Canada.
Wishing you all a happy and healthy 2022.
Do what makes you happy.
Ms. George