How to Keep Your THE BEST BITS OF LOCKDOWN

The COVID lockdowns upended our lives during these past two years. We were forced to adjust, making dramatic changes to our daily routine. A lot of it was annoying and restrictive. But not all. It allowed many of us to slow down and finally adopt the healthy lifestyle habits that we simply didn’t have time for previously. Here are five lockdown habits that you should keep when life gets back to normal.

Establish New Habits
What new habits did you adopt during the lockdown? Maybe you began an exercise program, spent 30 minutes per day reading a book (yes, a real book!) or began writing a daily things to do list. I’m sure that each of those habits made positive improvements in your life. 

Now that you’ve gone back to your pre-lockdown routine, your challenge is to establish and continue with those good habits. That’s going to be difficult. After all, the reason you were able to succeed during lockdown probably had a lot to do with having more time. But now you’re back to being your busy old self. 

To maintain your habits, you need to be determined and disciplined. When it comes to exercise, plot your exercise sessions on a weekly planner before anything else. Plan for your workouts to be on the way to something you simply must do, like work. And prepare for obstacles that may interfere with your new habit.

Practice Mindfulness
Mindfulness simply means being present in the moment. Life is often so busy that we don’t get time to do it. Our minds are running at a million miles an hour and we completely miss what’s happening NOW. But lockdown allowed you to take the time to slow down and meditate on the now. 

To continue practising mindfulness when life gets busy again, you need to plan mindfulness sessions. If you don’t, your day will run away with you and it won’t get done. Schedule 10-15 minute meditative sessions early in the morning or later in the evening. 

Meditation provides you with the opportunity to step out of your busy routine and take a bird’s eye view of what is going on in your life. This will allow you to better analyze your state of training and to determine if you are getting into an overtrained state.The more you practice meditation, the better attuned you will become to your body. 

Be Grateful, Reset Priorities
During the lockdown, many people became more grateful for the simpler things in life. Was this true of you? If so, did it challenge you to reset your priorities? Maybe material things became less important in favor of happiness, health and family time. 

Now that you’re back to your normal routine, are you going to keep to those reset priorities and continue practicing gratefulness or are you going to languish back to your old ways? The choice is yours.

Live In The Moment
When you’ve got time on your hands, it’s easier to slow down and smell the roses. Stopping and smelling the roses basically means to live in the moment. Being present in the moment allows you to appreciate and be fully active in what you are doing. When you are able to do that, every minute of your day will be more fulfilling.

Wrap Up
Those healthy lifestyle habits that you took on when you were forced into lockdown don’t have to fall by the wayside when you return to ‘normal’ life. Retaining them, though, will require determination and discipline. But when you are able to do so, your life going forward will be far more meaningful.