Stopping work early! 

If your work load has reduced you may be finishing work earlier. Not to mention the lack of commuting for those of you no longer heading into the office.

Are you questioning if you had things right before?!

Quality of life 

Although this is not a welcomed experience, has your quality of life improved in some ways? Perhaps taking the time to:

• Check in more with friends and family
• Respect the simple things in life
• Spend quality time with your children and pets

Economically this can’t go on forever, however this experience is forcing many to step back and take the time to calm down. Embracing a slower paced life, which will give many a positive rest and time to reflect.

Stress 

I’m not going to claim this is all roses. There are some clear significant health and financial concerns, causing many ‘ups and downs’ for us all. However, it’s very much out of our hands and there are some positive stress reductions: 

• The pressure we put on ourselves to pack as much into our working day as possible
• Reduced commuting (therefore hopefully more relaxation time and more hours sleeping)
• Exercise – Fewer cars means reduced pollution for your body to process when you carry out your daily exercise.

Enjoying nature

I’ve heard many people taking note of the beauty around them and getting out to exercise. I cycled past a lady the other day chatting to her partner about how she’d not been out on her bike for 14months! Although the aim of restricting activities outside your home is not to get people starting up new exercise, it is allowing those who would usually workout in a gym enjoy the outside. From a musculoskeletal perspective getting out and moving is great for the body.

Cooking 

Many of us have noticed our food bills increase. Perhaps a few more treats are finding their way into the basket (I’m definitely guilty of this). Lockdowns also offering us a little more opportunity to brush up on our culinary skills.