Coronavirus: Here’s my antidote to the boredom of lockdown – Hayley Matthews

Bubble baths seem to help, but Hayley Matthews also suggests finding pleasure in small things like the stunning peace and quiet, the newly audible birdsong and just being still.

Dawn chorus: Blackbirds and others have been waking Hayley up in a more pleasant way than usual (Picture: RSPB/Sue Tranter/PA Wire)

For the first time ever and I genuinely mean ever, I have had to think very long and hard about what to write. It seems coronavirus is all that people talk about just now.

I’m sure just like me, you’ve probably had enough of the C word. I’ve racked my brain for other topics and so far all I’ve come up with is my top ten most comfortable pants for after a c-section, my top ten alcoholic beverages to go to when you’ve drank so much you have the fear, or another favourite, my top ten biscuits to dunk in tea. Not for dunking in coffee because that’s just a waste, but tea only.

I run through lots of these topics but stopped out of concern that you may put in a complaint to Big Euan (the boss) and that I’d end up delivering the papers instead of writing for them, so I chose to go coronavirus, again. I know, I know, but hear me out.

I’m going to tell you and be very honest, about a huge positive that I’ve been taking from the lockdown.

It’s all been very doom and gloom and there is obviously a very harsh downside to the coronavirus. However, always the optimist, I’m doing my best to find a positive.

You see for quite sometime I’ve been feeling a bit fragile. I mean the world just now is a very scary place. It’s not so much for me I’m worried but for my family that I’m raising. I often wonder “what the hell will be left for them when they’re older?”

Bubble baths

I also imagine the state the world will be in which scares me. Yes there is a lot of good but there is still so much that keeps me awake at night.

Animal cruelty, homelessness, abuse of the vulnerable, crime, who really runs the world and how to stop the dark web.

There is a lot that I stress and worry about despite my nana sitting me down at the kitchen table when I was 11, as she sipped a cup of tea and smoked a cigarette and told me not to worry because regardless of whether I worried or not, what was going to happen would happen.

So during this lockdown I’ve started to dig deep and start to heal myself and it’s been needed and welcomed.

I’ve had more bubble baths in the last two weeks than I think I’ve had in the last ten years and yes the kids have jumped in which, as a busy family we rarely get the opportunity to do.

I’ve had time to treat my skin well, drink lots of water, take supplements, read, meditate and enjoy music.

Pleasure in the small things

These are all things that I used to do loads so what happened? I can’t be the only one enjoying this break from the hamster wheel.

Constantly keeping on top of washing, cleaning, organising, going here, going there, having to do things by a certain time and not having a minute to stop and just be.

I’m taking pleasure in the small things and, oh my word, the peace and quiet outside is stunning!

I can hear the birds waking me up in the morning instead of folk shouting abuse at each other from their cars as they screetch off honking their horns and throwing their egos about. So if you’re struggling to find purpose and feel bored, do what the Buddhists have done for centuries and just be.

It’s the hardest thing ever but also the most rewarding and if ever there was a time to practice just being still, it’s now.