What is Normal?

Posted bymeadandreaPosted inLive your best life

Normality is a paved road; it’s comfortable to walk, but no flowers grow on it.

As we tentatively begin our return to normal, it feels wonderful to me, and this week has been much better than last, especially seeing our family.   I found social distancing challenging as I would have dished out hugs and kisses galore in our old world, but we all managed and were thankful for being able to visit.   I’ve also had a Costa coffee, shopped for furniture, and booked a visit to RHS Wisley, who have opened their gardens, so all is good.

However, the meme above made me think about the changes many of us drove to our behaviour during lockdown, some of which I hope will stick around.

My blog readers will know that walking is a big part of my life as the exercise helps with my Ankylosing Spondylitis.  Normally, whether walking in our home County of Surrey or other parts of the UK, we see very few families enjoying the fresh air, even during school holidays.  However, the lockdown seems to have changed people’s behaviour.  I smile to see families walking, cycling, and swimming in the rivers like I did growing up.  I’ve seen families taking picnics together, exercising together and living a much healthier, lower-cost lifestyle.   The amazing weather has certainly helped, but I hope this behaviour doesn’t change when the material world comes back to distract us.

I accept that people have had more time to appreciate the countryside, and working from home has improved work/life balance.  Whilst I like the idea of a better work/life balance, I discussed the disadvantages of working from home full-time in a previous blog.  This week, I want to talk about business travel as I guess the closest you can get to a business trip now is taking your laptop from the home office to the kitchen.  Business travel has completely gone, and no one is sure when or if it will return.

Companies use video conferencing facilities such as Zoom or BlueJeans, which works well.  I’ve been on several Zoom calls myself, personal and business, and used this technology long before the lockdown started.  Interestingly, I’ve also learnt about video voicemail options like Loom, providing the expressiveness of video with the convenience of messaging.  This is great news for the environment, especially as today is World Environment Day 2020, but is technology a viable replacement for face-to-face meetings?  Is the human connection important enough for business trips to resume?

According to the Harvard Business Review, a face-to-face meeting is 34 times more successful than written communication, which makes complete sense to me.   Their research concluded that a video call comes closer but is still less effective.  I think the business trip will win because people still want human interaction; it’s a business style that I don’t think will change.  That said, if COVID-19 has taught us anything, every decision must be considered in light of our new way of working.

Personally, I’ve had some of my best adventures on business trips; many of my stories I’ll save for another day.  I often travelled alone and, as I didn’t want to spend nights away from home, I would try and keep my European trips to one day.  I would take the earliest flight out of Gatwick with a late return.  Early and late flights and a full day of client meetings were a tough gig.  However, seeing many European cities and experiencing life outside the UK was rewarding.   

On a rare overnight trip to Frankfurt, I arrived late in the evening in preparation for an 8 a.m. meeting the following morning.  I usually took room service, but I fancied venturing out for dinner and armed with my book, I set off from my hotel to find a nice restaurant.  After walking for about 5 minutes, a police car pulled up and asked where I was headed.  Dressed in my smart business suit and high heels, I advised him I was leaving for dinner.  “Not that way”, he kindly informed me, smiling; you’re heading to Bahnhofsviertel, Frankfurt’s red–light district 😊.  I’ve never been good at reading street maps!

Moving swiftly on, last week, I said that my Ankylosing Spondylitis had been particularly bad.  It’s still painful, and my gym workouts have focused on “core strength” this week.

Core exercises train your pelvis, lower back, hips, and abdomen muscles.  This improves balance and stability; most physical activities depend on stable core muscles.  The extensive walking we do around the coastal paths and in the hills depends on having a strong core, too, avoiding losing balance and falling.  Our core muscles play a huge role in everyday activities, from getting out of bed to bending over, but, most importantly, for me, they help with posture and keep me standing up straight.

Our core muscles are the base of support for our entire body.   They completely surround and support the spine and pelvis and connect the upper and lower body, effectively transferring forces from one to the other.  Sometimes, like now, I hurt too much to do my full core workout, and I have to limit specific areas of my regime, but I have other gentler exercises that take over when this is the case.  I’m starting to feel better, and my pain level is reducing; thank you so much for all the lovely messages I received last week after writing about my flare-up.  I rarely admit pain as I don’t handle sympathy well, but the messages were great 😊…

Lastly, I want to talk about the horrific death of George Floyd.  Like me, many people will have struggled to watch the shocking video of his death.  Racism is such a huge issue and too big a challenge to address by one individual person.  However, we need action rather than words; collectively, we can make a difference.  If every parent and every grandparent took the advice of Nelson Mandela and applied it to their family, it would be a start.

“No one is born hating another person because of the colour of his skin, background, or religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.”   

Nelson Mandela, Long Walk to Freedom

We must all take responsibility to educate our children and grandchildren by following the actions and words of this great man.

Until next time, stay safe and #StayAlert.

Published by meadandrea

Blogger, writer, author, love to travel, photographer

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