How I’m keeping sane

As much as I love being at home, I know being here all the time will takes it’s toll, so I thought I’d write about what I’m doing to keep sane and my spirits up in these strange and scary times.

Being Outside
For me, going outside isn’t optional because we have a gorgeous, hairy girl who needs to stretch her legs at least three times a day. However, even from a young age, I’ve loved being outside – being with my pony, racing around on my bike, cracking eggs on the tarmac – I have a lot of happy, childhood memories and many of them come from being outdoors.

There’s a million and one reasons why spending time outside is beneficial – it’s good for your health, you’re exercising, you’re away from artificial light and for me, the best part of stepping out of the door is being at one with nature. At the moment, the blossom is starting to bloom, the daffodils are putting on their bright show against the grey sky, the lambs are bounding across the fields and the birds are finally singing again.

Reading
I’m a huge bookworm and ever since I could read, I’ve had a pile of books next to my bed and that pile still exists today, albeit the books are slightly different!

I’ve got the most vivid memory of my Mum coming into my room in the middle of the night when I was little, where she caught me reading under my duvet with a tiny torch because I was absolutely desperate to finish Matilda, even though I’d read it that many times the pages were falling out!

A favourite quote of mine by George R.R Martin is, “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies. The man who never reads lives only one”.

So, I’m going to be taking my own advice and using the extra time that I save from my commute to hunker down, make a cuppa (ok fine, pour a glass of wine) and get lost in another world.

Work, and work hard
I now work for a company that has provided me with the most important role I’ve ever had in my career and not only that, it’s a role that is absolutely perfect for me – data and marketing, for a not-for-profit, in the agricultural sector.

I have always been passionate about ethical farming, especially around meat and animal welfare, and now I get to work a company that embodies all of this and that helps support farmers in animal welfare, as well as influencing and supporting the entire farming and horticulture sector.

A lot of people may not be able to work from home, so I could myself lucky that I can still do my job remotely and if anything, that spurs me on to work as hard as I can to support the business that I count myself lucky to work for and to keep continuity. Yes, there are a lot more distractions at home, but there is so much uncertainty in so many businesses, so we have a responsibility to do what we can to support the businesses we work for, by doing what we can and keep them moving forward.

Get dressed, get up at normal time, put a bit of lippy on, fluff your hair (I can’t brush mine otherwise I look like Monica from Friends when she has issues with the ‘humidity!’) or do whatever you want, to make yourself feel like you’re about to go to work – I promise you’ll feel better for it and you’ll end up being more productive.

Hobbies
For me, it might be obvious that I love taking pictures and I’ve got two rather snazzy looking camera, which I could do with improving my knowledge on and taking off the auto setting. I also love writing, which is why I have a blog, so I can spend time on these two things, which will make me happy.

What’s your thing? What have you wanted to spend time looking at or learn about? What ‘hobby’ have you wanted to do (preferably one that doesn’t include human contact!)?

This is the time to give it a go – do something for you because, I hope, that we’ll never be in a position like this again. Don’t waste this time we have now and it will also help block out some of the noise around what’s going on because there’s no doubt that when you listen to the news, it’s pretty scary.

I took this picture on my Canon using a 50mm, 1.4 lens, but on the manual function, which I’m rather proud about! Got to start somewhere, haven’t you?

Spending time with your loved ones
Even though we’re not at the lockdown stage just yet – although it’s likely to happen – we’re going to be spending a lot more time with the people we live with. I for one, cannot wait! Yes, we’ll both still be working, but once knock-off time comes, we’re at home together, able to walk Bella together, collect eggs from the chickens, plan supper – all the things we look forward to doing at the weekend, but now we get the chance to do it all week round.

We’re going to plan date nights where we get dressed up, go out in the car looking for boxing hares, FaceTime our family and have a drink together, and do whatever we can to support our family and the people around us who might need our help.

I’ve signed up to support at-risk people in the village, offered to their dogs, pick up shopping or prescriptions and will be on the look-out for any other way we can help. And I’ve definitely got a few Netflix suggestions for people should they be interested!

All we can do is take steps to protect others around us and ourselves, and do our very best to make what we can out of a terrible situation.

A x