A Day at a Time – A Daily Blog of Life in Lockdown
It is a strange thing feeling absolutely fine and healthy on the whole but being on the government’s vulnerable list. I was reminded of this twice yesterday with a call from Oxford County Council to check that I was alright and still getting my shopping and medication without a problem. Secondly, when I called the GP practice about the monthly blood test that has been part of my routine for the last 4 years, only to be informed that it had been moved to every 3 months because of the risk of coming to the practice. It is interesting that each year as flu season approaches, I am contacted by the GP practice about my entitlement to a flu vaccine and I never take it up. Now it seems we are slowly going to be coming out of lockdown, so this is something for me to contemplate. Do I take on the belief that I am at increased risk of serious illness if I catch Covid-19 and keep myself in this vulnerable category, which quite likely means living in lockdown for the indefinite future, or do I take my power back on this? I read an interesting article by Timandra Harkness who wrote the book Big Data: Does Size Matter[1] – maybe I need to put the risk back in proportion to how I normally live alongside risk. Afterall, I am not a ‘cotton wool’ type of girl.
Each man is questioned by life: and he can only answer to life by answering for his own life: to life he can only respond by being responsible.
–Viktor Frankl
In yesterday’s blog I described the meditation practice of just sitting. That evening I was chatting with a friend about how I continue to get caught in reaction. This friend practices meditation for an hour twice a day. She has always advocated this length of practice because it gives the opportunity to sit with what is difficult ……the last minutes being agonising, not necessarily the painful legs but the inpatient mind! She notices she is becoming much more patient in her daily life. Since lockdown and discovering the enjoyment and benefit I feel from an hour of Qi Gong practice daily, the time I am sitting in meditation is much less. Today I resolve to extend this daily morning period of self-healing and nourishment to 90 minutes so as to include 30 minutes just sitting.
The plumber came knocking at the door just as I had begun meditating. He asked why on earth I wasn’t doing it outside ….. excellent question! I had not realised there was warmth with the sun today. What passing pleasures, just sitting and watching the flow of experience – bird song, rustles of leaves, cool wind on my face, warmth on my back….
The time it takes to do ninety-minute practices I plan to gain in energy and more time awake. Ji, the Tai Chi teacher who taught me 20 years ago, always said that meditation was more important than sleep. It makes sense as many of the Qi Gong movements release energy.
[1] https://unherd.com/2020/05/why-we-should-take-risks-over-covid-19/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3
