Today I'm having a break form reflecting on routines and why I love them. Instead I am going to reflect on what I am doing to keep my mind and body active throughout these days of lockdown and confinement.
Each morning I have been exercising by watching a YouTube video. At the moment I have only watched two different site's videos (although I have been doing it every day) but I hope to do more over the coming weeks and talk about which ones have been good for me, as someone who has always been moderately active and sometimes very active.
I have also been doing a lot of reading and writing to keep my mind active, as I find that it has been my mental state that has suffered the most from not being able to go out and do the normal things - like walk into a shop without having to watch how close someone is to me or wait outside in a very long queue, going in one at a time.
The two YouTube videos I have been using over the last two weeks is The Body Coach beginners+ and Joe Wicks PE. Both of these are very good for someone who is not a complete beginner, and both the Body Coach and Joe Wicks have videos that are for total beginners if you are doing this from scratch and are not really active. Both videos last for half an hour, both have warm ups and warm downs and both have rest times.
The Body Coach videos have real people in them that are doing the exercises as well, and this motivated me to keep going. The person taking charge is also very motivating. The down side to this is that the videos are linked to their Body Coach programme and require subscription if you want to continue along a set path to get fitter and lose weight, unless you want to watch the same few videos time and time again. You can search around and find some more, but it is time consuming, especially if you are doing it through your television and using your remote to type in the name of the site on YouTube.
Joe Wicks, on the other hand, has lots of videos to choose from, although again, it is a little hard to navigate if you are using your television. The Joe Wicks PE is live every Monday to Friday at 9am, although it is recorded too, so you can access it whenever you want. The exercises are good and certainly make you sweat and you certainly know that you have done a workout at the end of it. The exercises last for 30 seconds with a 30 second rest after each one. You have two minute 'break' in the middle of the routine. The downside to it is Joe himself - he gets a little annoying at times and it is aimed at kids (mainly), but that hasn't stopped me taking part and enjoying it. I'll be carrying on with Joe Wicks this week then changing and I'll update the review next week.
Also, each day, my family and I also walk the dog for an hour. We have tried to take different routes each time to make sure that it doesn't get boring, or gone the same route from the opposite direction. We have stuck to the local area and always make sure that we are keeping socially distant from others, as is sensible in these times. It gets us all out the house and helps to have something to look forward to - although the kids are less enthusiastic than my wife and I!
The other activity that has helped me to carry on is my reading and writing. Each week I have another book I want to read and I simply take the number of pages in the book and divide it by 7 to give me the number of pages, minimum, that I have to read in order to finish it in a week. Mainly I have been reading a lot more than the minimum, but it has helped to have a target.
The book I have been reading at the moment is called The Volunteer, which I mentioned in yesterday's blog. It is a fascinating account of a Polish underground agent that volunteered to enter Auschwitz in order to record the atrocities perpetrated against the Polish political prisoners and, once the final solution started, the murder of the Jews within the camp too. I am at the moment where Witold has just escaped from the camp and made it back to Warsaw and found that none of the allies have done anything about the intelligence he sent out about the atrocities committed in Auschwitz. It is riveting stuff and, as I said yesterday, it puts what we are having to go through into perspective. I have something more lighthearted in mind for my next read.
I have also been reading for professional development. Although I don't do this every day, I have managed to read a number of essays on Romeo and Juliet, chapters on writing and teaching writing, work of metacognition and also a host of other things that I normally wouldn't have time to do. Can't use that excuse now, can I!
Writing has also helped me to cope. Getting my thoughts down on here has helped to focus my mind on what I am doing physically and mentally, so that I am still continuing my journey and making sure that I don't stray simply because I can't go to work or the gym. It has also given me the opportunity to write the novel I had been putting off for a while. This helps because I can go into the fantasy world I have created and explore a different world through my characters. It is certainly helping to keep my mind and imagination working. I have drawn maps to help me with the storyline, character profiles, plot lines and chapter summaries. I sit and write for an hour on this project once a day and it gives me a chance to focus on that and that alone. It has been exciting and challenging.
I also have a little note book that I write in, but that is general writing about anything. This can contain descriptions of real things (or the stuff of fantasy, like dragons), the beginning of stories, character profiles, etc. Once I have filled this book I am going to use a bigger note book (A5) to write longer version of the short writing in the small notebook and the same when I finish the bigger one, as then I have an A4 notebook to extend them even further. One might even turn into another novel? So writing has really helped me to not become bored mentally and helped me to realise an exciting project I've wanted to do for a long time.
So that is most of what I have been doing to keep my mind and body in shape and to make sure the days don't become an exercise in mindless drudgery. Please feel free to comment on the things you have been doing and things you would recommend that I could try.
Until tomorrow...stay strong and stay safe.
Thanks for reading.
Sean.
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