We are all on the same Path - Member Appreciation Week

@kieran000 How has the lockdown impacted me? Well it's pretty hard for me...i mean i miss my two bestie at my old school, i miss to go on a vacation, i miss to go outside freely without using mask. I miss that moment...but on the other hand it makes me more realize that life is short. Time keep spinning around, going on no matter what. Distance sucks. So i spend the time that i got with my family at home, doing my school tasks even though it's hard for me. But i want to try. I want to keep trying. I might fail. But that doesn't mean i'm a failure. I might get bad result, but i'm proud of myself for trying my best. It's not about the result, it's about the process, and how you progress. Little step is a step too, and it is important. There won't be millions of step if that one little step isn't there. Sometimes, small thing is the greatest 💙 That's all thank you ^ ^ *gives hugs to anyone who might need it* 💙 -Blue 💙

@kieran000

This post is awesome. So glad that members have their own specific week celebrating them. They are all amazing and are a very important part of this community. This pandemic has been hard, I lost my "best friends" and went through a lot of situations.Fortunantly, I met some amazing people in and outside of cups. But now, I learned a lot of good things about myself. I learned to love myself more and grow from past mistakes.

@kieran000

What lessons or personal truths have you learned while experiencing lockdown?

Through this past year, I've discovered a reserve of resilience in me that enabled me to get along through each day and the unpredictable events that the day brought with it. I also discovered that while I am comfortable being alone and can enjoy my own company, I am far from autonomous. Like most, I am re-learning how interconnected we are as a whole and how the Western go-it-alone mentality can be harmful, and how it often sets up unrealistic expectations of ourselves and of others.

How has the lockdown impacted you? The lockdown has definitely impacted me in so many ways. Firstly, the most significant one, was my mental health. I suddenly had so much more free time which led to a ton of overthinking and anxiety. I've been able to work on this over the past few months and I'm doing great now, but that was a major impact. Other than that, many of the plans I made had to be cancelled. I got my hopes up really high, so it was tough when everything suddenly stopped and I ended up stuck at home. Although there were negative impacts, I learned a lot through this rough experience. I changed a lot as a person and I love all of the positive changes ❤️✨

The lockdown impacted me significantly more than I had thought it would. I work from home permanently so at first, didn’t experience any change. My husband works in a field that is considered essential, so never had a change in his work experience either. What I hadn’t realized was how tough it would be to have no social plans, nowhere to go outside of the home, and living in an apartment complex where there wasn’t a back yard to spend some time outdoors. I was so used to being home every day working that I ignored how often I went out too. Half way through lockdown, we moved to a new home that has a yard and is all ours. It made it easier to escape what felt like a prison and it gave me a lot of work to do around the home. What I lost, and have yet to find again, is the confidence and enjoyment in a group setting. Having suffered from anxiety since my teens, it is extremely difficult to convince myself that leaving is okay now. My husband is helping me by taking me places like the golf course or beach in the evening where we are outside alone together in hopes of overcoming the anxiety.

Unlike a large percentage of people in the workforce, I actually never went through a true quarentine when businesses were shut down. I was one of those essential employees that still had to show up for work. But even though I wasn't physically stuck at home, the pandemic DID impact work conditions. I worked in retail and it just seemed that customers were even more nasty and hateful than they usuallly are. I know a lot of people like to excuse them by reminding us about the pandemic and the stress it can cause, but that was something that I really couldn't accept from others, especially since it affected my mental health very negatively.

Nevertheless, I'm SO glad I left that job and am off doing another, more favorable non-retail job.

@kieran000

What lessons or personal truths have you learned while experiencing lockdown?: Lockdown has given me alot of time to reflect on my life. I have made alot of mistakes and bad decisions in my past. I want to learn from these mistakes in the present and not make them in the future. I learnt that progress comes at different paces for everyone. What I must do is to take one step at a time and achieve what I want at my own pace.

Hello. Thank you for this amazing thread. I know a few people who were terribly impacted by the lockdown. Cancelled trips, concerts, dates... It all made people even more miserable.

Our question to you is, how has the lockdown impacted you?

I think I'm one of those people who actually enjoyed the lockdown. I could take care of myself, spend more time on relaxation and less on school work. I had ups and downs and sometimes I wouldn't even participate in online lessons but whenever I had a little motivation I would study on my own. I deleted social media. I kept only Snapchat and messenger and I don't need anything else

What lessons or personal truths have you learned while experiencing lockdown?

Motivation and energy are my happiness and something that keeps me going. I've seen that the days when I haven't done anything but watching Netflix I was feeling pretty low. Sometimes it's good to just not do anything but I realized that studying and actually doing something can be relaxing as well.

Thank you very much for reading. I hope everyone is safe and feeling awesome. Please, take care <3

Lockdown really did a number on me, especially at the very beginning. I was stuck at home with my ex (of nearly 10 years). It was not pretty at all, and honestly hit levels of toxicity that I would absolutely say weren’t even hit while we were still together. Thankfully once August hit, he was gone. He found another host to latch onto and feed off of. 👍🏻 And I too met someone ☺️ one thing that lockdown made a little less awkward/more normal was dating apps. We matched and spent a healthy amount of time (okay it was like three weeks) getting to know one another through hinge, then texting and facetime. Finally met irl and had a wonderful few weeks together. The thing was, he was only In my area temporarily for work, and the time had come for him to go back home...nearly 3000 miles away. The pandemic and lockdown thwarted all of our plans to see one another for eight months. It was incredibly disheartening and so immensely depressing for me (especially with me living completely by myself), and some days still is. The days when it’s not are the ones where I remember that I’m flying out to him for 10 days in less than two months ❤️ I know that got a bit rambly, but I guess what my point is, is that yes this road has been an absolute dumpster fire. But the important thing to remember is that every day we get through is a triumph; we become stronger with each obstacle we’ve overcome. It gets us further from the awful that was the beginning, and closer to something new and better.