Spoiler: Although I have spent a fair bit of March feeling under the weather, there was no point at which I had more than a passing concern that it was anything more than a cold. Please don’t worry!
I had envisioned March as a pleasantly busy month.
I was going to undertake my dance/cardio challenge. I was going to get out for lots of walks.
I was going to check in regularly with goofy posts about energetic flailing to music.
There was going to be photos.
March was going to come in like a frolicking lamb and I was going to frolic right along with it.
Yeah…soooooo, that didn’t work out.
The first few days of March were marvellous – I went for walks and danced it up a little.
Then, around the 3rd, I was suddenly as sick as the proverbial dog. Some sort of strange cold that left me feeling like my head weighed 3000lbs. (Approximately 3000, I didn’t weigh it.)
I didn’t even try to exercise, I know when I should exercise through illness and this was not one of those times.
My head gradually returned to its normal weight after 4-5 days, just in time for me to start sneezing.
(It’s a blessing really. If I had been sneezing while my head was so heavy, it might have just gone flying right off and I really don’t have the right energy to live as a disembodied head.)
Those sneezes and a sore throat were the first symptoms of a whole different cold.
The worst of that cold only lasted a few days but it left me with one of those post-cold coughs that acts up at night and keeps you from sleeping well.
And that brings me up to the point in the month when social distancing, Covid-19 reports, and the like became the focus of all of our lives.
Did I do what I intended to do this month?
Most certainly not.
Am I being hard on myself about it?
Most certainly not.
This has been an unprecedentedly bizarre month. My plans were knocked sideways through no fault of my own and then they were kept firmly in that sideways position.
This isn’t about me not following through. It isn’t about me not setting the right structure or not making the right space in my life for a new habit.
This March has been about me playing the hand I was dealt.
So, I have taken the dog for walks when the weather and my health cooperated.
I have done at least a little yoga every day and a little bit of TKD every week.
And I have taken extra steps in my day and worked a little harder when I had the capacity to do so.
It hasn’t been perfect but it has been good enough.
I’m not making myself any grand exercise promises for April. I’m just going to keep doing bits and pieces here and there and let it add up.
I know that exercise is an important factor for my mental health while I am spending so much time at home. But I don’t think a specific plan is the right thing for me right now.
I’m just going to do what I can and aim for things that help me feel good.
I hope you are doing the same.
Let’s just be kind to ourselves and to each other.
