Dr Emma Svanberg

The past year has seen changes that we could never have anticipated. The Covid-19 pandemic has changed all of our lives in so many ways. Here in the UK, as we begin to ease out of lockdown three, many people are noticing feelings of anxiety rising. While excitement might be there too, as an ending begins to appear on the horizon feelings of stress, sadness and anger begin to show up too.

While for everyone, in different ways, the pandemic and lockdowns have been lifechanging, we have also experienced this in very individual ways. For some, they have experienced grief and loss. The loss of work or financial security. The early years with babies or children that had been anticipated. The loneliness of living alone for a year. The pressure of working in a frontline job. The isolation of having to shield when others started to return to some sense of normality last summer. The frustration at being a keyworker but feeling completely undervalued. Everything that you have been through, that you have minimised. It all matters.

Right now, everyone is low on resources and high on stress. Many people went past the point of burn out weeks ago. But now is the time to begin to take stock, to process what has happened to us over this past year. To have conversations with our family, friends, partners and children about what we have been through. And to begin to look ahead to what life might look like.

Because we are time poor, and tired, this is a bitesize course. Ten mins a day, for three days, thinking about what we have been through. These sessions are focused just on you, to encourage you to understand what has happened to you recently, to let go of it just a little, and to begin to look with pride at the achievement of this year. There is an audio to listen to each day, and some prompts for different exercises you might want to do next.

If anything, this is to offer you an opportunity to just take a moment’s pause and allow yourself to consider what you’ve experienced. It’s only when we do this that we can afford ourselves the chance to let some of it go, and move forward with presence into whatever comes next.