How Often Do You Challenge Yourself? This is The Time to Find Your Spark Again

The last few years have been really challenging for most of us. We have gone through the motions of fear, uncertainty, worry, anxiety, and even loss. We had to completely rethink life – and we didn’t know for how long the pandemic would last or how much worse it could get. But it’s over now.

This is the time to move out of our fight- flight or freeze state of the pandemic. 

Yes, we learned a lot about mental health and wellbeing in the past years. And hopefully we can carry those learnings and new habits of self care into our new world. But we also lost our spark, our zest in life a little. 

It’s time to rediscover ourselves now. How we have changed, how our values changed, how our daily routines and habits have changed. Maybe our family and friendship dynamics have changed. Maybe what we find important in life has changed. Maybe our focus has shifted.

Now it’s the time to figure all of that out. What do you want to keep from the Covid times, what was nice, what has helped? Being closer to family and friends, connecting more with neighbours, travelling less and enjoying your home more? Commuting less and working from home more?

Evaluating what worked and what didn’t 

You need to take a step back and evaluate all the good and bad. A kind of start/ stop/ continue review for your life – like an end of year work review, just for pre vs post pandemic insights.

• • What to start or re-start from pre-pandemic times. 

• • What to stop doing that you had to do during the pandemic but don’t want to carry on. 

• • And what has really worked for you and you want to continue doing?

Few examples for me are that I actually never imagined myself working from home full time. I do miss connecting with colleagues and now that travel is fine again I do want to be in our london office more regularly. But I want to continue working from home most of the time because it really helps me balance my life as a single mom and carve out a bit of me time – instead of wasting it on a commute.

What I really need to stop or decrease is speaking to friends virtually only. I have a lot of friends abroad so of course that’s the best way to chat and I’ll keep that up, but friends who are nearby I need to see more face to face and have that real personal connection with.

Are you with me on those? Just think about one or two things each for start, stop and continue that you can consciously shape your life, starting now.

Rediscovering your spark

Many of us really got stuck and lost our spark in these unprecedented times. All that anxiety and that craving for safety. All the added stresses and the default to creating a comfort zone for ourselves at home. All these things kill your spark. They don’t allow for adventure, challenges or joy to grow. Quite the contrary.

So how do we get that spark back? One way would be to push yourself a little. Get out of that comfort zone. Do something that makes you feel alive again. A little backpacking trip, a dare with friends, a concert where you can really feel the music in your veins. 

Raise your energy, spike that adrenaline. 

We all got a bit too comfortable with our comfort zones. And we forgot that we actually crave that other side – the spark, zest, courage, flow, joy side of life. 

Bringing together the best of both worlds

We have learned so much about wellbeing and mindfulness in the past years, so let’s bring the two together. The spark and the mindfulness. The push for higher performance and the awareness of not burning the candle from both ends.

We can grow, we can perform, we can climb the career ladder, we can take on a challenge, we can go on that exciting trip or take up that course we always wanted to do. The time is now. We just need to do it mindfully this time around. We have learned and we have the experiences of burnout from the pandemic. So let’s do what lights that spark in us, but let’s not rush it or squeeze it in. 

Let’s be in the moment, let’s really feel it and do it and embrace it.

Are you with me on this?