Hi! How are you?
No matter where in the world you are reading this from, I guess you are in a special situation these days. The world kind of flipped upside down in a few weeks.
Things are different in every country, even every city. Here in Norway we have some preventive measures that we have to follow. Today, we received the update that these will last until April, and possibly longer. The schools and kindergartens are closed. We need to keep 1 meter distance from people outdoors, and should not be in groups of more than five people. Businesses like chiropractors, therapists, psychologists, hairdressers, gyms, skin salons and other firms who are not able to limit physical contact between people are closed. People who travel to Norway from abroad have to self quarantine for 14 days, and those who have been in contact with people contaminated with the virus have to be in isolation. The whole health system is rigged towards helping people in the most need.
From what I have observed, people in Oslo are pretty calm and adjusting rather quickly to the circumstances. In the beginning, people ran to the stores to hoard groceries, until everyone understood that the stores would stay open. One of the biggest shocks for us Norwegians, which the news debate has been covering a lot, has been that we are now not allowed to stay at our cabins. Understandably, the government wants to prevent putting pressure on the hospitals in small villages.
In contrast to all the rules and regulations, I feel like there are a lot of positive things coming from this time in our lives. It’s kind of beautiful to think of the fact that we all have something in common these days. We are all working towards maintaining our health and the health of our loved ones, keeping our businesses going, maintaining healthy relationships and figuring out how to adjust to this new way of living.
In many ways, I view this time as a huge blessing. Of course, my love and thoughts go out to everyone affected, and their families and friends, but I like to find gratitude and positivity in every situation. I find this time to be a common pause. We are all asked to slow down. We cannot maintain our “normal”, disconnected, stressed lives.
We are asked to take a look inward.
We are asked to find out what we like.
We are asked to feel our feelings.
We are asked to know who we like being around.
We are asked to get to know ourselves.
We are asked to review our path.
Hope you are staying safe and healthy during these times of big change! Take care of yourself, give yourself time to adjust, and play with all this “new” time as much as possible! Love <3