Lockdown in London

The past few months have been taken up with a rabbit hole of reviews. I’ve covered Eco Paint Reviews, Detergent Reviews and whiteboard paint reviews, I could probably cover the entire house with the stuff at this point! I thought I’d share my thoughts on keeping active and positive as we are stuck in another dreaded lockdown. I never thought I’d miss my local, The White Bear, so much!

Morning Meditation

I’ve really come to love my early morning meditation. It’s great to take half an hour of the day where you have to think of nothing! It can really help set you up for the day and improve your concentration. 

As mentioned before I’ve really got onboard with this and use the Headspace app to guide me in a meditation every morning. Meditation is all about being present, and over time teaches you to be fully involved with the task at hand. This practice is meant to help you become less distracted and more involved in what you are doing.

Studies have shown that after only 2 months of meditating everyday you can positively change the physical makeup of your brain! In 2011, a team at Harvard found that mindfulness increased cortical thickness in the hippocampus, which governs learning and memory, and in certain areas of the brain that play roles in emotion regulation and self-referential processing. 

When the rooms seem to be getting smaller and smaller from spending endless hours in the house it can be really good to create some more space in the mind. You can sign up for free and enjoy their basics course for the first 10 days. If you think you’ll like it after this, I’d highly recommend paying for the annual subscription. As well as countless meditation sessions they also have a fitness programme, live meditations and focus exercises. 

Yoga

I find it difficult to get in the mood for doing exercise, so it doesn’t really bother me that my local Snap Fitness is closed. Still, I needed to find some other form of exercise. That‘s why I decided to try out yoga at the beginning of January. I’ve been following Yoga with Adriene. She has been doing a 30 day yoga series for the month of January.

I’ve found it a much easier form of exercise to get into, although as you go on the sessions get progressively more difficult. Not sure any of the local London gyms will be getting my money anymore! I’ve found it to be a really enjoyable form of exercise. I hate having to share the gym with other people, and this is a more pleasurable experience. Once we come into summer I’ll be able to do it in the garden!

Cold Morning Run

I decided to take up running a couple of years ago. I started with 10 mile runs and ended up in the physio with banjaxed knees after a couple of months… This time around I only go for 20-30 minute runs every second morning. During this cold spell we’ve been having it’s so refreshing to get outside to wake yourself up!

All types of exercise release endorphins. These endorphins trigger a positive feeling in the body, similar to that of morphine. When you exercise in the morning this can leave you feeling great for the rest of the day and better able to concentrate on what you have to do. It’s made this London lockdown a lot easier this time around!

Finding a Passion

For me, getting through Covid in general since last year, and this most recent lockdown, has been about doing something I enjoy. Starting and working on this blog has been that for me. Hard to believe my little blog has been such a welcome relief from the day job. The feedback and comments I have received are great and mostly positive which has been nice. So for anyone struggling I recommend finding some little project to start and see where it goes. My next one is painting my office desk in whiteboard paint!