By Alice Johnsen.

I’m seeing a recurrent theme with clients at the moment. It’s about the recovery from lockdown. Not specifically the medical or logistical recovery, more the emotional one.
If you are finding it tough to re-establish yourself in this post-lockdown world and find yourself looking back on the good old days pre-Covid when we just got on with life and, looking back, it was pretty easy, you are not alone.
I’m not about to offer a great solution or even a quick fix. I don’t have one. But I wanted to share what I have been talking about with clients – the marathon that is the process of recovery we are now in.

During the lockdowns, while we faced unique challenges, loneliness, fear, frustration, there was also a feeling of ‘being in this together’ and a novelty. It was something we all had to adapt to together and we believed, most of the time, this would be a short term situation which made it seem manageable.
But now, here we are in the long, slow and boring process of recovery. Furlough and home schooling have gone, working from home going. We’re back to how it was – although we’re not really. We’re left feeling we should just get on with life again but many people are not sure how to do that now.
Added to that, dynamics of relationships have changed in many partnerships because of the last few years.
The accumulation of causes of anxiety caused by recovery and ongoing uncertainty seeps into all parts of our lives and become draining and distracting.
Two clients just this week have told me they feel they have no plan. They feel unsettled and not sure where they should be heading.

We all have own limits and comparing ourselves to what we perceive to be other people’s success stories is not helpful. I have written before about steps we can all take to manage stress and anxiety and in the next issue I will list the key ones for readers to refer back to over the coming months.

For now, please know if you are feeling unsettled, not sure where you are going, distracted – you are not alone and even if you are taking tiny steps, you are moving forward and that is a good enough start.

Alice Johnsen is a life coach based near Sherborne (07961 080513; alicejohnsen.co.uk)