One of the things that we get better at when things keep going awry, is bouncing back. And, if ever there’s been a year where our bouncebackability has been tested to the max, it’s this one.

Things mightn’t go as awry as 2020, but things always will – it’s rare that everything goes as planned. It’s frustrating and it’s knackering, this having to bounce back on repeat.

You’re allowed a pause though.

Between the awry-ness and the bouncing back, you’re allowed to pause.

• To gather yourself
• To take a breather
• To grieve
• To take stock
• To re-fortify
• To feel

That pause, it’s important. It acknowledges the end and the beginning of whatever the test was and has been. It holds a necessary and vital space for us to gather ourselves.

Nobody said bouncing back has to be instantaneous.

When the world feels as though it’s spinning on its axis faster than ever before and people are hitting the ball out of the park even though it’s 2020, renegotiate the terms for yourself and choose a pace that fits you. You don’t actually have to keep up, you don’t have to do it all, – and if you actually are expected to be magic and octopus-armed, have a word with those people and ask them to lower their expectations of you right now whilst you’re tired and depleted and in need of slow. It’ll whittle out those who value you for you and who value you for what you can do – sometimes painful but oftentimes enlightening.

You’ll bounce back, of that, there is no doubt, but in your own time and in your own way.

Remember we are always rooting for you.

Kim Fry
UKSA Welfare Officer