The high's and low's of working from home

How to become a hooker

I woke up one morning with an overwhelming longing for people – real people: not zoom or skype, webinar, WhatsApp or emails, Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest. I’m tired of the radio and TV. They don’t make up for spontaneous smiles, belly-laughs, children’s squeals and body language like arm-folds, frowns, chin-jerks, and ‘what-Eva's’.

I’m frustrated with working from home. I miss people – even meetings. That’s how serious this is! My shaggy hair was shapeless. My bed beckoned every time I walked into the room. Last week’s dishes were waiting for me in the sink and it took me oh! so l-o-n-g to do anything. As SuzelleDIY says: ‘One day you feel fine, the next day you feel depressed, then you feel happy again and then you feel like you’ve got Coronavirus’.

I am a morning person, but when Covid-19 came to stay, I started waking up in the mornings with a heavy heart, dread in my step, my intestines tied in a knot and feeling distinctly nauseous. I wanted to stay in bed. But this didn’t make the monster COVID go away – in fact, the shadow of doom and gloom grew like a humongous hurricane hovering on the horizon, and it was coming to get me.

So, like Max, in Maurice Sendak’s children’s book, 'Where the Wild Things Are', I had to command the monster of sloth to ‘Be Still!’ and tame it with my magic trick – by staring into its yellow eyes. Or should I say: face my fears. 

It was time for a shake-up and a make-over. It was time to stop feeling sorry for myself. So, I washed and cut my hair – I don’t know if that was a good idea, but anyway, now I can see through my fringe.

Then I thought about what I really enjoy doing. Something relaxing and inspirational. Something quiet (so I don’t disturb my man) yet joyful. Something creative and long-term – well, to last through COVID-19 anyway.

I’ve heard that it helps to learn something new – so I learned Tunisian crocheting – and I was hooked. Now, when I get up, I pick up my Tunisian needle and start to crochet. Slowly, slowly I get hooked into the rhythm crocheting and my mood of doom and gloom slowly lifts, and I feel more positive about starting the day. When people ask me which hat I’m wearing, I tell them my hooker hat!

How can this help you? Try these:

• Set goals – with a time-line:
• Find a mentor or muse:
• Reward yourself - have something to look forward to:
• Eat regular, healthy meals:
• Meet one person (mask, social distancing etc.) in person every day and talk about things other than Covid-19:
• Keep-up with your work responsibilities:
• Have a hobby:
• If you’re home-schooling children, see to their needs first – and have regular breaks together:
• When all else fails, go for a walk, eat a bar of chocolate, phone a friend:

Finally. Pray for wisdom, strength, courage and endurance.

Picture: free clipartix.com

      

Give yourself a break

It’s OK to have a meltdown

I was watching a National Geographic documentary about the behaviour of wild animals when they’ve escaped the jaws of a predator. They jump, buck, and skip as though they’re celebrating saying yay! Yay! Yay! Perhaps they re-aligning their energy or calming-down an adrenaline (survival ‘fight or flight’ hormones) surge.

Pent-up feelings can brew and then explode when you least expect it. Right now, we’re confined to home that could be a small apartment or a spacious mansion. We get on each other’s nerves when we’re on top of one another, but we feel lonely and isolated when there’s too much space between us.

Try as you may, there are going to be days (or nights) when you’ve had enough! Enough bad news, enough stress, enough demands from your family/boss/community/church, enough miserable weather, enough noise from the kids (or the neighbours). You need to have a good cry. It cleans your eyes and makes them super-tired. This helps you have a good uninterrupted sleep – and inevitably wake up feeling a whole lot better. Try it sometime!

If you think somebody’s life is better than your own, that it looks so good and they’re coping better than you are right now, take a deeper look at what they have experienced and have gone through to get where they are. We’re not who we are on the outside, its what’s on the inside, that counts.

Reaffirm your achievements. Do this every day. Gauge your achievements on YOU – and not others. You are special, unique, and loved. Don’t ever forget. Watch Mandy Beverley, founder of “The Remarkable Group” and Cathy Mellett, founder of “I’m Enough” that I’ve posted on my blog Facebook. 

Picture: EnginAkyurt@enginakurt