We have experienced two new ways of getting health care today.
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Spring
Today I had in mind to do a little bit of each of; Mindful movement, Mindful activity and Mindful meditation.
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Modestly Mindful Monday
It did feel like the beginning of the week today. At the end of our third week of social isolation I feel my routine is settling down.
Most days last week felt busy with time spent variously on getting the technology for social and exercise class link-ups to work, sorting out arrangements to get food and other supplies, making porgress with that list of jobs to be done during lock-down and of course doing the all important exercise. It has been good to have relatively unstructured days over the weekend and to finish the weekend with a sense of having caught up and prepared for whatever business the coming week will bring.
A marker of the seriousness of the Covid-19 situation is that the Queen gave a ‘message to the nation’. I don’t generally pay attention to anything the royal family do but this occasion was so unusual I felt I should watch. I was stuck by one point, she referred to people using their time in self isolation for quiet reflection through prayer or meditation; may be tomorrow…
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BACS or tripleRHS?
The SOFs (Slightly Older Friends) shopping service is doing sterling work. They do like to be payed by Bankers Automated Clearing System. I offered to pay on behalf of one of our number who does not do on-line banking and work out how we would do the reimbursement later. My enterprising friend has invented the Runners Reversed Routes Handover System. She checked when and where I was running today. As I came down the last kilometer she was there running up hill towards me with a plastic bag in hand containing the money for her groceries. There was an appropriate ‘plague stone’ near where our paths crossed so we were easily able to complete the transaction without getting closer than 2m. We both went on our way cheered by the efficiency of the system.
Other technology has been more of a challenge today. We were due to have a medical call using NHS conference calling system. After a very frustrating series of attempts to dial in, including phoning for advice from our neighbour’s teenage son, we abandoned our attempts feeling very embarrassed that we appeared to have been found incompetent at using a phone. Fortunately for our self esteem we shortly after received a call to say there had been a ‘glitch’ in the system and giving us new details to enter to try again in a weeks time.
Later I decided to have a second go at my Ballet video class which I had saved to my u-tube account when I paid for it on my mobile phone. I thought I would watch on the big TV screen but struggled and struggled to find the video. Eventually my better half worked out that the TV only recognized him (not surprising as he is in front of it a lot more than I am). He has now introduced me to the TV and it willing to let me look at my u-tube videos. Needless to say by then I needed to do something else but at least I know I will be free to watch tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow…
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Mostly Doing
It was great to link up with my teacher and classmates again for this morning’s Yoga session. Wendy refers to it as a ‘strong’ class and as it is only one hour we spend only the very briefest time in relaxation at the end.
Our major project today was very much of the ‘Doing’ variety, tidying and then clearing the utility room to create a sense of order and to have clear space where we can deal with goods coming in to the house which could theoretically be carrying corona virus. This was genuinely useful activity but also I suspect on another level an attempt to deal with anxiety.
There were pleasant distractions during day, especially having video calls so we could listen to granddaughter’s music practice, but after dinner I felt that I had not really relaxed all day. With the lighter evenings I decided to try taking an after dinner stroll on a route which is a favourite with said granddaughters. This was very much a ‘just being’ stroll rather than serious walking exercise. Narrow footpaths lead over fields to the playground in the heart of the village.I made it into a round trip of a couple of Km and saw just one person, at a distance, walking a dog. As the dusk fell and I listened to the silence I could feel myself relaxing. It was well worth saving my once a day leaving the house until early evening.
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Doing or Being?
Another good chat with my sister today. We are very different people in many ways and have not been close at all stages of our lives. We started to become closer after the deaths of first my father and then my mother but I was still working in the midlands and my sister was engrossed in her family and Bahai community in North Wales. After I retired and when she had major heart surgery we become closer again and over the past weeks we have been in very regular contact.
One thing we do have in common is being people who like to be actively doing things. We typically like to solve problems by doing something. For so many things we can make ourselves happy through tackling a problem. Lots of the business we have been engaged to adjust to social distancing helps us to feel more relaxed. However, once all the arrangements are made, all the jobs tackled and every workout completed Corona virus is still here. They are all good and useful things to do but they won’t distract for ever from the unpleasant emotions triggered by the global pandemic. We have both acknowledged that we need to practice spending time in the being mode. That is what I want from my mindfulness practice but now, when I need it most I find it difficult to make the time to ‘just be’ for even half an hour every day.
It will be interesting to look back in a few weeks to see if I have made any progress on this.
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Re-connecting
Like many retired people my weeks usually include a number of classes involving exercise. Of course they all had to shut down when Social Distancing started but already they are up and running again as on-line classes. It is incredible how within a week many people have got their heads and fingers around the technology and found ways to continue to offer their various fitness classes. I am now booked up for live Yoga on Monday and Wednesday and Pilates on Friday. My Ballet classes are on-demand which suits rather well so I can fit them in on Tuesday and Thursday and I can progress through them a my own steady pace. John’s NHS ‘Healthier You’ programme, designed to prevent those identified as pre-diabetic progressing to become diabetic is being conducted using telephone conferencing. The diary is filling up again and each day will be different.
Getting used to the technology to make the most of classes is a challenge. I was pleased when I worked out I could have my phone behind me and face the TV where the phone screen was mirrored. Perfect for Barre work in Ballet, I had the large image on the TV to follow to the front then the small image on the phone when I’ve turned the other way to act as a reminder but encourage me to concentrate on remembering the sequence. But then a left logging on to Yoga until the last minute and couldn’t get to see anything on the TV at all. Still a long way to go before I am proficient with this stuff.
The classes tick lots of boxes. They provide a structure to my days, they keep me connected with friends, they provide strength and mobility exercise to complement my running and they exercise the brain.
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Another Sunday
We decided that it really was OK to have a lie in on the morning the clocks changed. It was good to start the day in a leisurely way, especially as I had woken at 4 am. I did succeed in getting back to sleep, but only after I had made use of a couple of guided Mindfulness meditations to help tune out the myriad of thoughts about how I could better organise our social distancing. A later start also fitted in with the way I have deliberately arranged my weekly schedule to cover Monday to Saturday so that Sunday remains different. We did decide to tidy up some papers, prompted by a lost legal document. That is a least favourite job for both of us.
The high spot of the day was an email from my granddaughters. I had asked them to tell me the names of the Peg Doll Bogarts they had made and left here at February half term. This was the reply;
These are the bogarts’s names and some things they like and want:
- Monster Zard🤺🎸🚜🎒🐯⛄️🍟🍕🍔🥛🥉🥈🥇🏆🏅🎖💰💸🗄🗑📕🖍
- Ben Dolan✏️📓🗃🛹🍫🥪🥛🛷🥁⛵️🏟🕓⌚️🏴☠️📏📗🖍🧳🦁
- Verity Velvet 😌🐬🍑🍹🤸🏻♀️🏞🏳️🕓⌚️💽💿📀💰🧺📓🧷🖋🔐🎹🗃
- Tickle toese word💻🗡🔫🧗🏼♂️💰💶💼🕰🍱🥛🍩🍦💞🐩🦔🏜
- Ruby Rose 😔🙂🤫🤲🏿🐶🍜🍯🥃🥎🎻🔐⛺️🌄💰🕰🗂📕🖍🖇🚩🏺
- Dockle Day 👩👩👧👧👩👧👧👩👦👦👨👩👧👨👨👧🧶🧵🍀🌮🥛🏈🛴🏜💰⛓📗🖊🗄🇧🇩🥁
- Ferecale Felt 😀🐭🍿🍯⛹🏾♀️🏰🌠📒✏️📁☕️🏴⚱️💰📁🎸
- Priscilla Princess👩🏼✈️👯♀️🦉🥛🏊🏽♀️🏄🏻♀️🚣🏻♀️⛵️💰🏺📜📘🖌💓🏴☠️🗃🎺🗺🥥
- Barksle Bracken🙂🦊🏹🎷🏝💰📓✏️🔍🏁👩👩👧👧👩👩👦👦👨👨👧👧👨👩👦👦🐴🌰🧁🍹🗂
- Emily Hornet 💃🏻🦇🧀🥖🥛⛸🌁💰🔮📿⚗️🎀📗✒️🗄
- Sulphur Religion 🏐🏃🏽♀️🕸🐠🥥🥗🎆🎇🌅🌄📔✏️ love you bye 💗💖💞
It is going to take me quite a time to learn what all those emojis mean, am I occupying them or are they occupying me?
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More on Food and other supplies
Making sure that we have the food we want is the thing that causes most anxiety. However genuine people’s offers to help are we can’t help feeling guilty about asking for help. We wonder whether we really should be protecting ourselves at the expense of those who offer to go shopping for us. We wonder whether they will get fed up of shopping for us if we are too fussy. We wonder how particular we can be about what we ask for. I like to have half a cup of Edamame beans with my lunch time salad every day. It helps to ensure that I get 1 gm of protein for every Kg of body weight every day. I considered carefully who in my support network would know what Edamame bean are – I guessed right, thank you Ranald.
I have said previously I am very keen to continue with minimising plastic wrapping for shopping if possible. Now that we are so reliant on NHS staff having all they need for protection, much of which will be plastic wrapped I want to minimise my own use. My Zero waste shop Scoop has come up trumps. They emailed and phoned to let me know my order was ready. Their system appeared to be so thorough on social distancing that we decided we would venture out ourselves to pick up the order. We both felt strangely nervous getting in to the car to drive through Matlock and Matlock Bath to Wirksworth. Everywhere was quiet. In Matlock bath there was an obvious police presence and teh parking bays usually full of motorbikes on a Saturday afternoon were blocked off with traffic cones. Not a biker was to be seen. When we arrived in the centre of Wirksworth we were relived to see that the parking ticket machine had been taken out of commission and displayed a large notice asking ‘DO YOU NEED TO BE HERE’. We were able to wait opposite the Scoop shop to check there was no one in sight. I crossed the road and knocked at the door to see Mat in the shop holding up a bag labelled with my name. All I had to do was nod to show that was me and the door opened, an arm place the bag on the step and the door shut so that I could safely pick up the bag. Next the card machine appeared at the window and I placed my card on my side of the glass. It responded as quickly as usual. Who would have known that you can operate contactless payments through glass? My shopping, everything carefully weighted out into brown paper bags is now sitting in my north facing ‘decontamination chamber’ previously known as the front porch.
Driving home past Wirksworth Co-op, Sainsbury’s, M&S Food, Iceland and Matlcok Co-op we saw various different arrangements of people queuing outside at two metres apart and presumably only a small number being allowed in at a time.
When I got home I realised that one thing I had not got was a good supply of birthday cards which I need at this time of year for several relatives, mainly women. Sticking with the ‘shop local’ theme I got in touch with Sarah Parkin (http://www.sarahparkin.co.uk/), a local Watercolour Artist friend who has some of her paintings printed up as cards. By the end of the day I have had a delivery of 20 cards with spirit lifting spring and summer local scenes. All I have to do now is to remember to post them to the right people on the right day.
I finished the afternoon with a run on the roads around the top of the village. It was good to be sure that I had more than met my two targets for the week – 20 k of running and the equivalent of 300 minuets of moderate exercise. I will potter in the garden all day tomorrow knowing that any exercise I get is a bonus. As always, as soon as I had recovered from my run I felt fresher and more alert.