Saying Goodbye to 2021
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Open Minds Group Dec 2021 - Saying Goodbye to 2021
“I miss myself, the person I used to be before the pandemic”
This year has been a challenge for all of us. There is no place that hasn’t been affected in some way by the pandemic and even the simplest things have become more complicated. We used this month’s Open Minds group as a space to reflect on our experiences of the past year and just as importantly, we used it to think about ways that we can support and nourish ourselves into 2022.
Home working became the normal situation for a lot of us and we talked about the struggles of boredom, lack of routine and how to reduce feelings of isolation. Simple things like going for a walk to clear your head or forcing yourself to get into some kind of routine were things that helped some of us. Some of us have been working outside of the home and they talked about how they’ve enjoyed being able to see people face to face.
As the conversation deepened we talked about how we have learnt to cope with the daily uncertainty that the pandemic has created. For some of us it’s felt like we’ve been in a war or an ‘end of the world’ situation and we talked about how easy it is to become used to feeling anxious all of the time.
There has been a lot of loss but in trying to keep on going, we haven’t had much time to process all the things we have lost. We talked about how much we have changed over the last couple of years and a few of us talked about wanting to reconnect with who we were before the pandemic started.
One of the most important realisations in the group was that the fact that we have survived 2021. This time of the year we’re encouraged to think about how we could be better versions of ourselves and we have to be really careful that we don’t end up blaming ourselves for the circumstances we find ourselves in.
We ended the group by talking about our wishes for ourselves for 2022 and we all talked about the importance of having hope that things might get better and of practicing kindness towards ourselves. We need to be careful that the pandemic doesn’t stop us dreaming and that we look for ways that we can have breaks from the anxiety and fear that it has created.
We wish all of you a safe and hopeful 2022 and we look forward to seeing you at one of our events in the future.
As always, get in touch if you’d like to start a conversation with us.
With warm wishes,
The Open Minds Project
We meet on the last Wednesday of each month and if you want to join us at an Open Minds Meeting, please visit the Events page on our website.
The Open Minds Project
