Lockdown Number 5!

Alas, here we go again, lockdown number 3 or lockdown number 5 should I say. Let me explain.

I imagine I am one of many that felt a new wave of disappointment at the recent news from Boris Johnson that we are to enter lockdown number 3 here in the UK. Like many in the UK, I tuned into the news in a state of despair on Monday night. It was as though moans could be heard hovering over the news, echoing above the rooftops, from disappointed residents across the land, whose plans for the New Year had now been shattered under their feet. How lockdown number 3 will unravel is anybody’s guess. 

I had spent that afternoon, packing my bags, preparing my camera and tripod and organising slides for a Presentation Skills session I was to deliver at a Leeds law firm the following day. All the while, a quiet voice had whispered in the back of my mind that I should be prepared for the training not to go ahead. And sure enough, that voice was right. After initial disappointment, I did what I had done throughout the rest of the pandemic and previous two lockdowns and accepted the news as best I could.

Accept what is within your control. 

At some point in our life, most of us will receive unwelcome news. Often it will feel too much to handle. In my own life, I have received challenging news which has felt unbearable and left me feeling hopeless. In 2010, I was working with Doncaster Council, and after they booked me to speak at a conference, they announced 800 job cuts. By the time the meeting had taken place, the tension was beginning to surface within the workforce, to such an extent the organisers had to ask me to run a workshop immediately after my presentation. The theme was on finding a silver lining amid dark clouds. 

All was going well until one gentleman could not keep his frustrations to himself any longer. 

'It's all very well for you, some of us are losing our jobs,' he shouted. All of a sudden, all eyes turned to me and his in particular were firing darts in my direction. After what seemed like an eternity, I replied. 

'That's right, some of you are about to lose your jobs. And how you think about and view the situation will have a bearing on your resilience and ability to cope.'

And the same can be said about the current lockdown. There is no point lamenting over how it should be, how you would like it to change the status quo, how things might be different. Things are what they are. We are where we are, and much of what is taking place around us is out of our control. What is within our control is how we think about our individual and collective circumstances.

Choose Your Thoughts. 

The very first time I experienced a lockdown, so to speak, was the day my mother died. My three sisters and I were taken to a Children's home, where we were to remain for three months while the authorities decided what was to happen to us. We could no longer play in the streets as we had done before mum passed away. We could no longer play in the field at the back of my house or knock on a neighbour’s door asking if their child wanted to 'play’. I soon decided that the best course of action was to accept that my life had changed and there wasn't a great deal we could do about it. Not yet, anyway.

Again in 1997, I faced yet another lockdown when I was sentenced to 12 months in prison for dealing drugs. Although I was no big-time drug dealer, I had made a mistake, and the courts decided I had to be locked up. That day, my freedoms were taken away from me once again. As soon as I arrived in the cells below the courtroom, I knew that I had to accept my fate if I were to navigate this storm. And I did. If I had entered the prison system full of anger and resentment, then heaven knows what my experience would have been. I didn't and I survived. 

Looking back, I realise that accepting life’s challenges and facing them squarely helped me to develop resilience. Acceptance can help you too. 

You will survive this.