Let's Talk about Lockdown 3

We’re almost a month into Lockdown 3 in the UK and the recent news of an NHS on the brink of collapse as well as a rising daily death toll is all a bit too much. While the roll out of the vaccine gives us hope, it still feels like we have a mountain to climb before we’re out of this mess and even with the point at which people stop dying from this virus visible just over the horizon, we’re bewildered by what kind of ‘new normal’ we’re going to find ourselves living in when we eventually escape. It feels like the world is never going to be as it was before. It feels like it can’t be. And nor should it be.

But exactly what kind of new reality are we going to be living in and is it going to be a reality that is better for us all and better for the planet? Only time will tell. Time, it seems, is the only certainty we have.

With these sobering thoughts in mind, I’m wondering how you’re all doing. How are you feeling? How are you coping? Are you doing better or worse than you were during the summer? No judgement here. It’s not a contest. We’re all just crawling our way through the fog. Perhaps you’ve found your lockdown groove more quickly this time or maybe you feel like you’re having to start over, learning how to deal with it all again. I mean, we never really came out of lockdown, did we? But it still isn’t easy, is it?

Oh how I long to dance shoulder to shoulder, hip to hip, with semi-naked bodies on a beach as the sun rises onto a new dawn. How I pine for an afternoon sipping a flat white on a gallery bench, soaking up the art and watching the world go by.

Whatever you’re yearning for and whatever your situation is, whether you’re a key worker still going out to work each day, or someone Zooming non-stop as you work from home; whether you’re homeschooling your children, or taking care of relatives; whether you’re crowded into a full house or rattling around an empty one, feeling lonely and isolated or just craving a little time and space for yourself, we are with you and we know: this is hard.

Since October, Shakti Women has been running a service called ‘Let’s Talk’, giving up to 10 hours of free talk therapy, counselling, coaching or mentoring to any woman who has been in touch with us and expressed a desire to speak to a professional. Lots of you have and we’ve decided to extend the service for you because we know how much you need this right now and we also know how hard it can be to afford talk therapy. That’s why this service is free.

If you need to talk, please get in touch. Send your name and number to hello@shaktiwomen.com and one of our team will give you a call.