Getting Back Into A Routine After Life Has Turned Upside Down

Life has a habit of turning upside down every now and again. You’re going along, cheerfully whistling your way through life and BOSH! Your hard drive dies. Or BOSH! You are made redundant. Or BOSH! Illness strikes you or a loved one. And life goes pear-shaped.   

As you know (only too well, I know!), I’ve had a hard drive meltdown, which has led to stress, worry, a huge learning curve of tech-crap I didn’t wish to know, and my normal daily routine being thrown largely out of the window.

You may also know that I do Daily Practices. Thank God, this month’s was to ‘Let Myself Off The Hook ‘, which is good because I haven’t done anything the way I normally do! Most of my Daily Practices, plus a lot of other good habits have just fallen by the wayside because 50% of my brain space and attention has been dealing with the tech-crap.

But now, the tech-crap is largely over (worst-case scenario now is a new laptop and transfer of the data that is now backed up in several different places), and my brain-space is expanding to allow other things in…and I’m realising that I need to pick up my Daily Practices again.

It occurs to me that I (and my poorly computer) might not be the only ones who need a bit of a reboot! So here’s my 10 top tips for when life goes pear-shaped:

1. Be kind to yourself – things that cause life to turn upside down are stressful and disorienting enough, without you giving yourself grief.

2. Take care of yourself – in the midst of trying to rescue data, install new operating systems, rebuild your lovely laptop from scratch, your body, mind, heart and soul still need love. And the better cared for you are, the more you can do. If you’re exhausted, your mind is frazzled, you want to weep helplessly in a corner, and you’re totally disconnected from your soul, life’s harder. When the world turns upside down, you need to take care of yourself EVEN MORE. It’s not a luxury, it’s a necessity. And I can tell you from bitter experience this month that letting your self care slip will no help the situation one bit!

3. Get help. This is no time to be terribly British and ‘not wish to bother people’. Bother them! Let them help you. People love to be nice. And at this point I’d like to thank Dave, Neil, Joe and Paul for their tech-spertise! Especially Paul, who rescued my data and is officially my Favourite Person on the Planet right now.

4. Remember, this too shall pass. Eventually, everything gets sorted out. Most situations pass. Within a few weeks/months/years, whatever has turned your life upside down will pass. When you think it will never bloody end, remind yourself of this truth!

5. Keep the most important bits of your routine as intact as you can – for example, the Morning Pages for me are an essential. In 2+ years, I’ve hardly missed a day of writing my Morning Pages. They’re the way I stay sane (and they have saved the ears of my friends and family over the last 3 weeks because I’ve been ranting in there about tech-crap a LOT!). Without them I’d have gone loopy. Know what your most important practices are and do at least them.

6. Notice what practices have slipped and the impact of that. For example, my practice of having at least one day off the laptop has gone by the wayside for 3 weeks. This has led to me being agitated and scattered, stressed and irritable, burnt out and exhausted. When shit happens, take the opportunity to notice ‘hey! That thing really makes a difference – look how bad I’m doing without that’!

7. Look for the gifts in your situation. Hey, day 1, 2, 3 and 4 are not the days for this – then, you’re just trying to keep your head above water and cope with whatever life’s thrown at you. But as soon as the initial shock and horror wears off, look for the gifts. Increased family time, a reason to focus on your health, no more going to a job you hate, a kick up the ass to get your back-ups sorted, and to sort out 4 years of IT clutter. 😀

8. Keep your sense of humour. I lost mine for a while, then a dear friend made me laugh by calling it The Great Purge of 2013, now renamed The Great Crash of 2013. Until then, I had found zero humour in the situation, which is most unlike me. Anyway, keep your sense of humour – not many things are worth losing your laugh about. Tech-crap certainly isn’t!

9. When the crisis passes, don’t forget about your normal routine – this is a chance to shake it up, to let go of anything that wasn’t working for you and re-commit to what DOES work for you. It’s so easy to just forget about it for months on end, and then as you try to bend over to pick up a pencil, realise you haven’t done any yoga for 2 years. Don’t let that happen. As soon as you can, get back to doing whatever works for you.

10. Once the initial madness has passed, do what you can to prevent this happening again, or prevent the impact being as bad. For example, BACK UP your data! Sort out your savings so you can survive job loss/illness more easily. Have contingency plans in place. Some things cannot be planned for, but if whatever rocked your boat can be prevented in the future, use this as a good kick in the backside to make sure it NEVER happens again!

Life is going to go pear-shaped occasionally, but ‘this too shall pass’, and one day it will all be a distant, fuzzy memory! I’d love to hear what your top tips are for surviving your life being turned upside down – did I miss anything?

Love

Donna.x
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