Isolation stories: week nine
We’re on the cusp of summer and it was a hot old week, both in terms of the weather (28 degrees in London!) and British politics… the debate over when to reopen primary schools grew increasingly heated and Dominic Cummings (Boris Johnson’s political advisor) made a mega faux pas by breaking lockdown and everyone was up in arms. Everyone except Boris that is, who said he acted responsibly, legally and with integrity. News just in that the whole fiasco has been branded #Cumgate. Cumgate and BJ… such a historical moment in British politics!
A new moon in Gemini arrived on the 22nd ready to shake things up (in a positive way) and turn us all into social (distancing) butterflies. A time to focus on our communication and connections, but also to spend time offline rather than struggling with Zoom fatigue. I took this onboard and spent Friday evening on my mates stoop having drinks with them and their neighbours, and met fellow Geordie pal Lizzie for some sunbathing on Hackney Marshes.
I dip my toe into tarot every now and then (I’m currently doing an online Biddy Tarot course) and I pulled The Star card twice last week! For those who don’t know, there are 78 cards in a deck so to pull the same card is pretty unusual. The Star is all about hopes and dreams, and trusting that they really can come true. Fingers crossed!
On that note, I enjoyed getting my Sharpies out and creating a vision board of the future. This is something I often encourage my life coaching clients to try themselves, as starting with the end in mind and visualising your end goals actually works! It did for Jim Carey, as this great TED talk by Isaiah Hankel explains - definitely worth a watch, especially if you’re feeling a little stuck right now.
Brene Brown launched her new podcast “Unlocking Us” earlier this year… I love this woman! The episode “Permission to Feel” where she interviews Dr. Mark Brackett about emotional literacy is fascinating and really got me thinking about how we communicate our feelings to not only ourselves but other people too. Interestingly Brown’s research shows that the mean number of emotions people can identify is only three; commonly bad, sad, and glad. Her research reflects Brackett’s, whose findings demonstrate that people are neither in touch with their emotions nor properly equipped with the tools to regulate them if they are. Seems we all have some work to do!
It was a week for great food and drinks in our house… we discovered Beyond Meat (vegan) burgers in our local Tesco (go on try them, they taste like real burgers!), created a tasty Ottolenghi spinach and date salad, made granola from scratch and got a surprise delivery of Aperol Spritz ingredients from the fam (thank you!).
Week nine in photos… please do like, comment or share any thoughts below. Thanks so much for reading.
