5 Lockdown Life-Changes Which Have Actually Improved my Quality of Life

I don’t really want things to go “back to normal”.

With today marking the first real stage of pandemic re-opening in the UK, I’ve been thinking a lot about what life is going to look like for me in a couple of months. Instead of getting lost in a tempting spiral of negativity — I can model it for you: mourning the last year and anxious about what comes next — I’ve decided to curate the benefits. We all know that 2020 sucked, but there have also been benefits. So I decided to engage with positivity and list them here. So, below are three practical and two philosophical practices that I’ll be taking forward into the rest of my life.

1: Masks

I know, I know! But stay with me here! Masks are probably the number one thing most of us are looking forward to putting behind us. They’re hot, they steam up your glasses and if you can’t get into the rhythm of not noticing them, they’re all you can think about. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not in love with them either! But, thinking back on a life of public transport use — being sneezed on and having my personal space not respected — I can’t help but think that keeping the masks on trains, busses and trams is definitely the way forward. In the immortal words of Valentina, I’d like to keep it on please.

And speaking of personal space….

2: My Bubble of Personal Space

I am a woman in the world. That should really be all I need to say to communicate to you how much strangers get all up into my personal space. Again, public transport is a huge culprit but it’s a bit more universal. During this last year, the fact that I’ve not been touched (almost not at all but there have been some persistent creeps in our ever-present English queues) by any strangers without my consent has done wonders for my personal sense of safety and security. Combine this with actually getting some alone time (something, if we’re honest, a lot of us were pining for in 2019) and I don’t remember feeling so at peace with my body. Long may it continue!

3: Video Calls

Yes — I know I’m naming all the things that people hate. But hear me out here. I don’t mean unnecessary work calls, which used to just be on the phone. I’m not sure there’s anything more irritating than those! But — and I think this is pretty common — I have quite a few friends who live abroad. Before the pandemic, we’d gotten into a habit of keeping in touch over WhatsApp and email and seeing each other in person once or twice a year. That’s not enough! Because of the world’s fresh obsession with video conferencing, I was able to attend my friend’s Bar ceremony in LA, visit with my nephew in Edinburgh and hang out with a pal from Northern Ireland — all from leafy Hertfordshire. My long-distance friend game has never been better!

4: Being my Own Cultural Icon

In lockdown, I’ve really been the ultimate arbiter of taste in my own little world and it’s been eye-opening. After the initial wave of tracky-bottoms and general bra-lessness (and whatever it was alongside banana bread that Instagram was telling us to be obsessed with last June), my inner voice has been louder and louder as the world has gotten quieter and quieter. I wear what I want, listen to what I want and don’t feel any pressure to “fit in” (with whom would I fit anyway?!). It’s been a very healing and self-actualising aspect of society-rehab and I want to maintain the emotional space I’ve made for myself in the last year. Please and thank you.

5: Talking About Ideas

I used to have a friend who, whenever we saw each other, would ask: “what’s news?”. It was charming enough in his thick Melbourne accent, but I did find it irksome after a while. He would never ask, “how are you?” or “have you read anything interesting lately?” it was always — no matter how recently I had seen him — “what’s news?”.

The hilarious Canadian comedian, Julie Nolke (the comedy queen of the pandemic), has a sketch that perfectly incapsulates the problems with “news”-based friendships. In the sketch, which is about the stress of beginning to socialise with people now that it’s possible to socially distance outside (aka hanging out with people in parks in spring), two friends struggle to reconnect now they have “nothing to talk about”. The root of it is the anxiety we all have around a lack of new things to share in our lives. Of course there are some exceptions (even just speaking for myself, during the pandemic I’ve welcomed a new nephew into the family and started my own business — how’s that for news?!), but in general I’ve been so happy to have the brainless chatter stripped away and replaced, in most cases, with ideas. With social media, we all know what’s happening with people anyway, so why is that still all we’re talking about?

During the last year, I’ve found myself having the kind of conversation I wasn’t even aware that I missed. With friends and family, having exhausted even the most virulent (excuse the word) complaints about the world, we’ve all fallen into talking about films, literature, podcasts and art. We talk about ideas, debate and compare creative notes. Paradoxically, having “nothing to share” has made us all a lot more interesting.

So there you have it, my key takeaways from life in lockdown. As hard as it’s been, there’s also been some light in the dark and I do believe it’s important to recognise that.

Thank you for reading! What’s been the biggest upside of the last year for you? Let me know, I’d love to hear from you!