Breaking Routine to Build Resilience – The end of the summer is here. Schools are back, autumn plans are being set. Did you manage to get a break over the summer?
I know that few of us have had our usual kind of holiday, but many people managed to enjoy short breaks within the UK, perhaps getting to know parts of the country they’ve never been to before because we’re always so busy heading to foreign shores.
But was your break enough?
I’m asking because many of my patients are still feeling a little jaded from over a year at home, many have missed their foreign holidays and exciting travel plans. So, although a few days away from home may have felt like a real relief at the time, is it enough to get you through the winter months?
As the weather begins to turn and the nights draw in, we naturally spend more time at home. I like to call the winter ‘cave-time’ because we retreat more, we don’t see our neighbours as much, it’s time to be cosy and warm inside. But if we haven’t balanced cave-time with travel and socialising in the summer, it can start to feel a bit monotonous, and we can feel restless and anything but comfortable staying home.
We really don’t know what this winter season will bring – we could face more restrictions, no one really knows. But there is one thing we can do to build our resilience – and that is to take time to break our routines right now. Shake your week up a little. Get out every time the weather is decent. Plan day trips, do things at the weekend.
The big routine shake-ups that foreign holidays bring have been unavailable to most of us, so we need to keep things fresh, on a smaller scale, for longer this year.
By keeping plenty of variety going in our weeks doing what we can, closer to home, we’ll find ourselves much more likely to be able to find peace when we do finally enter the winter months and turn our cave-time into much needed nurturing time at home.
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I’m running a free 3-part online series for busy women who do too much and would like to reduce their stress levels naturally. We start on 24 September – find out more and save your spot here.
Pamela Spence
Medical Herbalist