Lockdown Lessons: What We Learned In Lockdown & What We Should Continue Doing

Lockdown has taught us some great things – how to bake banana bread, make whipped coffee, and many, many tik-tok dances. But more importantly, lockdown taught us some life lessons, and how we shouldn’t take life for granted. Although the country is slowly coming out of lockdown and we are easing back to normality, there are important lessons that we should carry with us.

How Important Family and Friends are

Whether it was over Zoom quizzes, socially distanced walks or Facetime, we all realised how important family and friends are, especially in uncertain times. Not being able to see those closest to us for months face-to-face was undoubtably one of the most difficult things most of us went through, and made us value our relationships that we have even more than we did before. Having days where normality seemed like it would never happen again, and being able to turn to my friends for support was something that got me through when emotions and anxiety was at a high. On that note, our hearts go out to those people who lost a loved one due to Covid-19.

We can live a simple life

It can be so easy to get caught up in life and get overwhelmed. Being in lockdown allowed us to strip away most distractions. We were pretty much left with our basic essentials – food, shelter (and endless Netflix), and we managed to get through it. When non-essential things such as nights out, getting our hair done or go shopping is taken from us, we realise that we can’t always buy happiness with consumerism. It also made us adapt to a simpler and slower-paced life and allowed us to reflect on what really makes us happy.

We need to Value Healthcare workers

It is safe to say that healthcare workers have been our heroes through this time, and we owe a lot of gratuity and appreciation to them. By putting their own health and lives at risk, they saved millions of people, and we will be forever grateful for that. Often healthcare staff are under-paid and underworked and not treated with the respect they deserve; hopefully this will be a turning point for healthcare professionals. Their courage, dedication and patience did not go unnoticed when the world was in crisis, and we will continue to support and thank them.

How strong we are as a nation

Little story – back in February, when Coronavirus cases started to spread rapidly across the Globe, I was living in Melbourne, Australia. Shortly after, in March, Australia was thrown into lockdown with 48 hours-notice and pretty much all flights out were cancelled. The Prime Minister made it clear that any financial help was only going to Australian Citizens, and all non-citizens were told to get home some way or another. The feelings of panic, isolation and helplessness I felt being out of my own country was something I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
When I landed at Dublin Airport (after many cancelled flights) the relief I felt that I was back home was incredible. Watching Leo Varadkar’s speeches, telling us that we will come out stronger than ever as a nation made me realise just how strong we are when we all come together. Ireland made quick and important decisions very early on, and they were not easy to come to grips with, but we took it and dealt with it as a nation, and we should be proud.

Running, Walking and Cycling

Looking back, I don’t think my dog will ever forgive me for dragging her on two or three hour walks every day but it made me realise how important it is to get up, get off our phones and computers and get outside. Having nothing else to do forced me to take up running and walking, and I know that I wouldn’t have gotten into the habit of exercising once a day if it wasn’t for the lockdown. Once the restrictions lifted slightly, and we could go more than 2km (what a day that was) I began to discover places within 5 kilometers that I had never even been to before – beautiful parks, mountains and walking routes that I would have probably never gone to if it hadn’t been to lockdown.
What lockdown lessons did you learn?