Lockdown is over. Zero days! Our city is open!!! We emerge.
As restrictions lift across metropolitan Melbourne and businesses re-open, we are a bit like butterflies emerging from our cocoons. Eager, but perhaps a little tentative, slightly scared.
After 111 days of lockdown (188 total) our reactions range from ‘I’m going to party!’ in fear of another lockdown, or ‘I’m staying in, it's not safe out there’. For me, it’s been more of … uncertainty…
On the fitness front, many used the lockdown to get reacquainted with their physical self. I’ve witnessed many people embark on daily exercise routines, learn to meditate, improve their diet and cultivate healthy habits during this strange and unusual time. For those of you, Bravo! but for many, the world of lockdown has been vastly different.
Our first lockdown was almost yay! Once we got our heads around it we slept late, baked bread, slow-cooked dinners and whipped up creamy desserts, made cocktails at 5 (or 4), watched Netflix with late-night snacks and rolled back into bed, often in the same pyjamas. All across Melbourne we Marie Kondo-ed our wardrobes, stuffing garbage bags with recycle or trash. We cleaned our homes to industrial-clean regulations, set up makeshift offices at kitchen tables and bedroom dressers.
We purchased puppies, cleared space for yoga mats and dumbbell workouts, planted gardens, learned instruments and languages and rekindled hobbies.
The second lockdown was different. The mood shifted. Good intentions fell away. Intense restrictions forced our kids back to home-school, businesses and playgrounds closed, construction and childcare ceased. Extreme limitations were set on human contact, outdoor exposure and the mandatory wearing of masks felt oppressive and unjust…
And the days dragged, time seemed endless… two more weeks, then two more weeks... it felt hard and harder to ‘stay the course’ …or was that just me?
In my life, being in the fitness industry, the restrictions stopped me in my tracks. Some clients went online which saved me by giving purpose to my day.
Although it turns out, we need, I need, contact with actual, real live humans!
I was a chef for many years. I’ve always worked with and for other people. I love this, although it’s not easy work, it always felt natural. So I have friends in both the fitness and hospitality industries. Restaurants, cafes and gyms closed on the same day. It was heartbreaking. Perhaps the group hardest hit were those in our beloved Performing Arts… what is Melbourne without live performance and gastronomy ?
We were forced to stop working, to stop doing the very thing we loved and honed. For the greater good. It was a big ask. I understood why some didn’t go down without a fight. It took me time to reconcile the necessity of such extreme restrictions and I fluctuated between sad, enraged, complacent, compliant, rebellious and hopeful, daily, weekly and into the months. The first time was a challenge. The second time felt constricting and enraging.
We knew it would be over eventually. So with the coaches’ voice in our collective head, we pushed on and made it through.
Now, it’s time to get moving again. To pick up from where we left off (in a covid-safe way!). To do whatever it takes to get going. To come back, bruised maybe but better, altered, ready.
It will evolve. For now, I will wear a mask while coaching. My clients will have designated spaces and equipment. Restaurants will cater to restricted numbers and plan and re-build for the future easing of restrictions, our musicians, writers and performers will re-group and soothe our souls with works to come so we can digest and reflect on what has happened. In the cliched words of that coach... collectively, ‘we’ve got this!’
The prescript life of lockdown, on all counts, seems counter-intuitive to health. We now know what health experts have told us for years is true...we must spend time outside, exercise regularly, connect socially and minimise screen time. We need to do this to achieve and maintain our healthiest physical and mental selves.
So, let’s remember:
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