YOUR ANSWERS MATTER
12 Questions to Make Sense of Your Lockdown Moments
A moment of reflection before we return to the new ‘business as usual’
I often think of the different experiences of lockdown across the world. Yesterday, while Belarus fans watched a football game, English beaches were mostly deserted in the sunshine. Healthcare workers are stretched to breaking point, furloughed millennials twiddle their thumbs in boredom.
For introverts, lockdown is bliss. For extroverts, frustration. For those in great relationships, it’s rediscovery, for others not so lucky, a living hell. The ‘shielded’ are wrapped indoors in fear. The poor queue outside a food bank shoulder rubbing others.
Whatever your lockdown moments are, one thing is common for all. lockdown will hold a mirror to your soul. You will be faced with the truth.
- You will be faced with the truth of who you really are, and perhaps that person needs to change.
- You will be faced with the truth of who you really are, and perhaps, that person needs to emerge.
- You will be faced with the truth of who you really are and perhaps that person needs to be loved and comforted
- Perhaps, you need friends, or a meaningful job, or forgiveness, or hope, or growth. Perhaps you need GOD.
The 12 Questions
- What have you missed the most during in lockdown?
What mattered to you prior to lockdown? Was it your immaculate hairstyle, or the feeling of sand through your toes. Or the friendly conversation you had with the receptionist at work. What was that special event or thing, you could not replicate in lockdown?
2. What’s the best thing about being in lockdown?
Has lockdown allowed you to discover a new perspective? Did you find any positives in the midst of a pandemic? This question is about how you see things.
3. What has been the worst thing about being in lockdown?
What lemons did lockdown throw at you? Very often, we zone out difficulties with distractions - Netflix or Social Media. But after six, seven, eight weeks, were you faced with your worst nightmare? or did life remain unaffected?
4. Who would you have liked to host in your home during the lockdown and why?
Allow your imagination to fly. If you were to be stuck with anyone, living or dead for six or seven weeks, leaving the house just once a day, or not at all -who would you choose.
5. What have you discovered about yourself in lockdown?
We learn all the time, don’t we? But what has this period taught you — about yourself. That deep down, you love your own company, or that in truth you are lonely? Perhaps some old dreams have returned?
6. What did you eat (or drink) the most during the lockdown?
I know this is mundane, but I am curious. Share a picture if you can
7. Apart from sleeping and working what activities did you undertake the most during the lockdown?
It is said that Shakespeare wrote King Lear whilst quarantined in the plague. So are you being super productive? or barely managing to get out of bed?
8. Will you come out of lockdown heavier or lighter?
Another unimportant question. No judgement here, I think the world would like to know.
9. What resource has helped you most during the lockdown?
Everyone needs something to lean on, it could be an online resource, your social media community, church or other religious services, a meditation App. Fitness videos. Be specific, we could learn from you.
10. What is your top tip for other people in lockdown right now?
We all like to give a little bit of advice, don’t we? What would you say to someone in the situation you are in. I’ll understand if you don’t practise what you preach, but we’d like to hear it.
11. How has lockdown changed you?
Have I made an assumption here? Would you prefer I asked, ‘Did lockdown change you?” Lockdown has changed the world, we are emerging to a new normal, would you rather remain the same?
12. If you were to leave a ‘message in a bottle’ for the future, what would you say?
In many years to come, several documentaries and books would be written about the year 2020. Your descendants would value a message from you. What will you write?
One last question, where are you?
Here are some of the answers from fellow writers. Each refreshingly honest and inspiring.
Besom & Bletherskite would “just fine with only a few folk around me and a much simpler life.”
Russell Weigandt’s top tip “Find an outlet for emotion. Find some productive, goal-bound habit to sublimate your stress, sadness, extra energy, etc.”
Kevin Buddaeus is “ opening up more, sharing private things with strangers.”
Dipti Pande is, “believing in my inner strength and the courage and resilience of my soul.”
Timothy Key advices “Find those one or two things that anchor you currently and make those a non-negotiable priority.”
🦄 Chris Hedges reminds us to “weight information with an eye on the truth”
and I add my answers here:
PS: If you answer these questions, please tag me, I’d love to enter your world.