Have you adapted?  Chances are good that you’ve adapted to a new lock-down normal – even if it isn’t one you would choose.  At the heart of resilience is our ability to remain open and flexible, and to some degree our ability to adapt to this new normal highlights why, perhaps paradoxically, flexibility can be difficult.

I have adapted.  New routines have formed – combining walking the dog with running for exercise, most cooking is now from scratch despite the extra time it takes, I train and coach online now, and many more subtle adaptations.

I’ve even noticed the odd fleeting inner concern about going back to the old normal – even though that old normal was the normal for decades!  Noticing this was a great reminder of the short-term nature of our emotional system and it’s aversion to change, despite our ability to adapt!

When things are going well it’s hard to see that in the face of adversity my openness to options, and willingness to change will be affected.  But one part of experiencing adversity is a narrowing of our awareness – our world view reduces, honing our thinking down to the difficulty we’re facing.

If you’re facing difficulty now, here’s five ways to encourage openness to flexibility by exploring the bigger picture, or to clear some mental space so we can:

1. Do something physical – such as stretching or some form of exercise (running up and down the stairs has become a ‘thing’ in our house).  After exercise there’s often a period of more open awareness.
2. Ask yourself, “In a week/month/year/decade (pick a relevant time period) how important will this be to me?” Or perhaps, “…might I be able to see this differently?”  You may then ask, “What would my future self tell me now?”
3. Imagine someone you care about was going through this / feeling like this, what advice would you give them?  And, what would be my attitude towards them?
4. Often whirring thoughts in our head block everything else, so let them out.  If you have a trusted friend that’s a good listener, try opening up to them.  Or try this…get a pad with plenty of blank sheets of paper and a good pen; start a 15 minute timer.  Begin writing about anything that comes into your head – and just keep writing – don’t stop writing.  Write, ‘I’m not sure what to write now’ if necessary, but keep going.  Afterwards, you might look over what you have written and see if there’s anything to learn from it… or you might simply shred it and move on.
5. How do your feet feel while you’re walking?  Simply coming into the present moment where our reality is much simpler, and if it’s physical sensation (like how your feet/face/head etc. feels) more objective than the often biased complexity of our busy heads, can help to make mental space.

There’s no right way, so experiment a bit.