NEWS/BLOG
It’s OK not to feel OK
That short sentence has been used many times recently. But what does it mean to you?
During the past 7 months we have all had to adapt in one way or another to COVID-19. Some of us have worked from home, some of us have been furloughed, some of us have lost jobs – with sadly more to follow. Some have returned to work, to now find they have had further restrictions put in place for their sector.
The schools were closed and some of us had to try and balance working from home, home schooling and ensuring there was food for everyone in the house. We had new changes announced on an almost daily basis, it was sometimes hard to keep up with them! The tally of people with COVID-19 was announced daily, along with the growing number of people that had sadly died. Seeing these numbers increase daily caused people with anxiety to worry even more, whilst others kept all their worries and fears inside with nobody to turn to.
Weddings were postponed, new babies not seen, birthdays quietly celebrated, and funerals were not attended. The world seemed to be shouting out for peace, (did you feel that too?), for cleansing and for people to not only be kinder to each other but also themselves and their environment. What did we learn? What did you learn?
Well, some of us did learn to be kinder, to think of others, to be supportive and think that as hard as this was for them, there were others that were really struggling. Did we learn to be kinder to our world though? Did we learn to be kinder to ourselves?
Here at the Clear Voice Interpreting Services offices we have kept in touch with our interpreters to ensure that during this ‘new way’ of working they know that we are here for them. We have shared a training video we made with Windmill Training about lone workers and how to cope with the potential stress and/or feelings of isolation. The Clear Voice staff check in on each other daily and through our parent charity, Migrant Help, we have systems in place should anyone need to access extra help or assistance.
So, next time someone asks you if you are ‘OK’, and you really aren’t… please, please remember that ‘it’s OK not to feel OK’ and reach out for help. You might just find that the person that asked can relate to your feelings too and thus open a conversation you can both relate to. Sometimes the person that you think is coping well, is actually struggling in silence, so reach out and talk, listen, and by helping others we can help ourselves.