How to find beauty in the (un)ordinary
Constanta,Romania
Sooo.. you guys know this year started with a Bang! And there have been a lot of snowball effects coming onto us as a collective and us as individuals. And for me and some of my closest people, it has definitely been confusing. I had personally went through a high-intensity fear-based attitude; hyper-awareness when going out on the streets in the first few weeks of the lock down here…. Had no idea how this would play out in the long run.
Now as the days went by, I starting looking at each day as a singular process with a start and an end. So, like.. I would start my day with a meal and a (huge) cup of coffee, a half hour / 40 min exercise, then started work from my home-desk, then disconnected to watch some Netflix before bed (I know allegedly it`s bad for you, don`t judge OK ?!.. it was my only outlet to disconnect from the work stuff, which, was also a lot ngl)
Then through the next few weeks as things normalized a bit and slowly reopened here (allowing us to go in open spaces w/o a justification- yes the regulations here in my country required that for the Red warning period…), I started going out for shorter walks before work during the work days and longer walks during the weekends.
And I cannot tell you.. The relief and joy & the freedom feeling it brought to just be outside and walk around the city, the parks senselessly. I was noticing the trees more, the smells in the air, the wind touching my face-I used to take this things for granted so much before-
I was missing 'my dear' sea so much, I had only one desire, "once they allow us going out, I`ll go to the beach". And I did just that-on the first day we could go out and wonder.
It was all very strange but revealing and soothing. This is definitely a time un like anything we`ve lived before and it`s so personally touching me and others around me…. I mean I remember when I was barely a teen 2003 when the Iraq war started and I was watching the developments every-day on TV and thinking to myself how this is worrying and how this could potentially expand into a greater, world-wide conflict… it was scary but it passed. Now 2020.. I had some many plans for this year all of which have now been put on hold for over 6 months and I`m talking ab career moves combine with personal life & relationship changes. It all halted and I had to wait…
But I guess my point is, it has been such a weird nonsense time lately that I can only process it in pieces, I can`t even dare to think about larger long-term future plans, I have no idea what the world is going to look like next week much less in a few months/years from now. So the beauty of it all is I had started taking on smaller-term projects I had in the back of my mental planner for years and never found the time to prioritize, like changing the furniture in my room, helping my parents buy new appliances, helping around the house, redecorating my room as DYI, etc… taking on this blog project I had been putting off for years :)
It just made everything that I had so many doubts about before, so much more reachable you know? So what if I started a blog and it wasn`t the perfect name, the perfect article, or design, so what I had to take my DYI home project in phases over months? It had re-taught me how take things in smaller sections and just start because there was nothing else.. Right? What else was I gonna do with my time and money?
And listen I don`t mean this to sound snobby or any other kind of way though I shouldn`t even be justifying myself. It`s just one person`s perspective on the world from where she sits and a personal journey through this. There`s obviously different other people riding it even harder out there I am sure, but we all do what we can to get through it with what we`ve got and we should definitely try to help others in any kind of way if it comes from the heart.
So I guess here`s the top 5 things that worked for me in keeping sane and rediscovering beauty in the world amidst a difficult and uncertain time:
Make each day a separate process
Look for small project-ideas you`ve been putting off for long and initiate (doesn`t matter how long it takes for them to progress or complete)
Take time to disconnect your mind from energy draining activities and re-charge (mine was at the end of each work day)
Look at small ways you can help others by starting with your close ones (parents, siblings/family) and scale up from there if needed
Take comfort in your process w/o self-blame on others having it worse than you -it`ll not make you productive to yourself or to the world outside
