**This post was originally sent via ConvertKit on June 15th, 2021**
Hey Pause peeps. Over here in Cali Covid restrictions are officially lifting today, so I thought we'd take a moment to explore what that means for us in regards to how we're showing up to the relationships in our lives.
Take a deep breath, settle in, and get ready to pause in 3...2...1...
🤔 Showing Up
Since the pandemic started, we've all had to adapt how we're showing up for ourselves and the people around us. In The Before Times, I had a semi-system: if a friend needed some encouragement, I'd take them out to dinner and we'd sit at the bar to hash things out...if my sister needed some help with her baby, I'd book a flight down to San Diego for later that day...if I needed an emotional pick-me-up, I'd go to a dance class and sweat it out with total strangers. Showing up in those ways used to feel like second-nature. They were obvious moves that I rarely, if ever, thought twice about.
But then...it happened. The effing pandemic took over, and we were left with no other choice but to try and adapt the ways in which we showed up for ourselves and the people around us.
Friend-to-friend? I feel like I got my ass kicked in this department. The mixture of first-time-mom, isolation, and what felt like the need to numb myself led me to recluse more than I ever have before.
What it meant to show up for myself and the people around me changed, almost completely. Sure, I still found occasional ways to show up that were reminiscent of The Before Times (like: flower deliveries, care packages full of books, spontaneous encouraging texts), but as the days of quarantine stretched on longer and longer, showing up for myself and my people began to morph into something completely different. There were some days I liked the new ways I was showing up (pretending to have a solo night in a hotel by closing off the living room doors and pulling out the couch? Surprisingly fun.). Others, I really craved caring for myself and my people in a way that felt familiar.
So, since we're entering this new, less-restrictive era of life, for this issue of The Pause I want you to consider how you'd like to show up in your relationships moving forward. With more stuff opening, do you want to adapt how you show up for yourself? Your family? Your friends? Are there parts of how you showed up for these relationships during covid that you'd like to keep? Are there parts you'd like to cut back on or completely make peace with (like, oh I don't know...excessive screen time and Zoom birthday parties)?
Regardless of your answers, please don't forget to give yourself a pat on the back for showing up in whatever ways you did under absolutely bonkers circumstances. Navigating covid and the accompanying restrictions was a beast to get through mentally, physically, and emotionally, but you pulled through and did it.
A little extra love to you and yours today,
Lindsey
⏸ Pause & Reconnect
Get curious and have fun. Remember, there are no right or wrong answers, just what's true for you.
1. How did you show up for yourself, friends/family, work/coworkers, etc. before covid?
2. How did show up for these relationships during covid?
3. Did you like any of the ways you showed up to these relationships during covid?
3. Did you dislike any of the ways you showed up to these relationships during covid?
4. Moving forward, how would you like to show up for yourself?
5. Your friends/family?
6. If you could go back to March 1st, 2020 and give yourself advice on how to show up for yourself and your people during quarantine, what would it be?