Lockdown: A Time For Self-Love?

At times like this it can be difficult to be positive about anything. Not doing “enough”, being cooped up inside your house and eating a weeks worth of snacks in one day. If like me, you haven’t seen your partner in god knows how long, it really doesn’t help either. However, I say this is the time where we take advantage of the opportunity to truly look after ourselves and practice self love.

Negative Influences

Yes, we can finally do our skin care routine and do our home workouts we always say we are going to do but, how about some self-love from the inside out? My friend told me she’s seen 12-year-olds on Tik’s Tok doing weight loss tips and I couldn’t believe what I was reading. It baffles me that women are this affected by their appearance from such a young age. So, we need to start pushing a more positive message to the women and girls around us that is louder and more important than any contradictory information.

When I was younger, I was consumed by my size and appearance, I can’t even imagine what it is like nowadays for young girls who are on Instagram and other social media sites seeing influencers and air brushed celebrities. Now we are in lockdown we are spending more and more time on our phones. Don’t you hate that dreaded screen time notification pretty much telling you that you are on your phone more than speaking to a human being? By being on our phones so much we are exposed even more to these images as we sit in our PJs eating yet another banana bread or cheesecake, with our greasy hair in buns, hating ourselves. But I propose we share our greasy hair, don’t care moments and put away the scales you’ve probably been obsessing over.

How To Make Positive Changes

When we look in the mirror rather than seeing those hip dips that pretty much every single woman has, why not point out something in that area that contradicts it, even if it sounds stupid. For example, I might hate my hip dips but the skin on my hips is really soft (this is a big deal if like me, your skin is as dry as the Sahara) and I like the little bit of fat on my hips. Or, how I have a really short body, but I like my waist. Once you start to notice the little things, you can notice things more and more until the little things you love aren’t so little and you can look in the mirror and feel more confident in your skin.

If you’re following someone and you obsess over their appearance and you feel sad or jealous by how they look then unfollow them. You don’t need that negativity in your life when there are some really great, positive influencers out there. Also, get rid of the negativity in your personal life. Surround yourself with friends who make you feel good, uplift you and most importantly make you happy. Friends that tear you down and make you feel bad when something good has happened aren’t good friends. I myself have been guilty of feeling that twinge of jealousy when your friend is doing great and you quite frankly are doing shit, but I have done a lot of self-reflection where I need to work on myself and learn to be more positive and happier. This year has helped me a lot and while lockdown has brought me back into those low spots, now has been the perfect time to prove to myself that even when times aren’t great, I can still be positive and love myself even just a little bit.

Stress and How I’m Dealing With It

I’d say I’m the type of person who doesn’t often show they are stressed to others (unless you’re close to me) and I often deal with high stress situations pretty well. I may joke how stressed I am or make a passing comment but usually not much more than that publicly. When I was younger this was a different case, and this has taken a while to perfect, probably the last year most crucially due to my job. However, I get stressed very easy, which often causes me to argue with people over stupid things, cry and isolate myself.

So, since I can remember, when I got upset I would go upstairs and put a CD into my CD player. Modern day me, asks Alexa to play one for me or goes through my vinyls. Music is like medicine to me and has always soothed me. You can’t be upset when listening to some feel good music. One of my personal favourites to listen to when I’m stressed is Don’t You Worry ‘Bout A Thing by Stevie Wonder. I’ve turned this stressful situation into a positive by finding more new music and artists.

I often feel more stressed when I’m tired so a nap, good nights sleep and most importantly a sleep schedule are so important. Making sure I wake up and go to bed at similar times has helped me get a routine and a bit more control over my days. Also, before bed when you’re watching another Netflix series, it is cliche but light some candles and maybe even have a bath or meditate beforehand. Always take some me time to do something you love. If you aren’t a music person then think of something else you love whether it is baking, some sort of craft, writing, FaceTiming your friends, literally anything! These are strange times and seeing as we won’t be going anywhere too crazy for a while why not give some of them a try.