Three Things Quarantine Taught Me

Happiness can be found even in the darkest of times if one only remembers to turn on the light.

J.K. Rowling

It all seemed so simple three months ago. I didn’t really put much thought into grabbing my keys and heading to the grocery store. I didn’t think twice about tasty brunch with friends or date night. Fast forward, I now keep a mask in the glove department of my car, I side eye people in grocery stores that refuse to follow social distancing and brunch and dates are quite creative these days and mostly take place at home.

My quarantine began with many mixed emotions. My birthday trip to Cartagena was canceled and I spent days leading up to my birthday in my feelings. Some days of quarantine have been better than others. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t ready to sit in a restaurant without a face mask to order an appetizer, entree, dessert and drinks.

Quarantine 2020 changed a lot for me. I’ve learned more about myself during days of quarantine and social distancing. I’ve had the chance to take self inventory and evaluate my life. I’ve allowed life to teach me a few lessons.

You gotta love yourself.

I was fully aware of the importance of self love before quarantine. I fully understood the many reasons to love myself. Quarantine has given me a new perspective on loving myself. Being quarantined removed a lot of outside factors. There aren’t many distractions when the world has basically shut down. This period in life gifted us with time. Time to sit with my thoughts, feelings, fears, insecurities and desires. Loving myself made this period feel a little lighter. I allowed this time spent with myself to teach me. Teach me the real concept of self love and the real reason I gotta love myself. I can’t really remember another time in my adult life where most distractions were removed from my life. I’ve been more in touch with myself throughout this quarantine than most of the year. Without understanding why I have to love myself, I would’ve missed the lessons life was teaching. I would have missed those lessons because I would’ve been focused on trying to escape my thoughts and feelings. To love yourself, is to enjoy yourself. To enjoy yourself is to allow silence and the presence of yourself. To love yourself is to be still and just be.

Permission to be great.

It’s funny how life can teach you and friends the lessons at the same time. Its as if you’re experiencing an awakening simultaneously. While chatting with a friend, she mentioned giving herself permission to be great. I felt the ‘yessss’ I typed in text in my soul. I felt it in my soul because I too had decided to give myself permission to be great in all facets of my life. Last year, I gave myself permission to be great in my health. I explored a plant based diet, dropped over 20 pounds and began taking my health more serious. I gave myself permission to be great in my career years ago. But, those are just a few aspects of my life. I realized that I hadn’t given myself complete permission to be the amazing woman I was created to be. Verbally giving myself permission to be great has allowed me to fully accept the many things that make me Sheba. I can now turn up the volume to Janelle Monae’s, I Like That, my theme song that often pops in my head throughout the day because I honestly am liking exactly what I’m giving permission to.

Just do it.

Time waits for no one. Life changes and we really don’t have control over what direction this world chooses. I decided to stop talking about it and just really be about it. For me, getting to the point of just doing it included me loving myself and giving myself permission to be great. I’ve always known I had a passion for helping people and listening. My passion started with helping children and being a guide for those that felt unseen. My desire for helping children fled and I became more interested in helping women. I’ve wanted to reach women through blogging, videos, coaching for a while. I can blame life for pressing pause on launching my coaching business and restarting my blog, but it was more than life. I needed to really want to do it. I had to feel I deserved to share my life with others and coach women. I had to envision myself fulfilling my desires. Right now, I can do just that. I see it, I feel it, I can touch it. It doesn’t matter the time it takes to completely master my desires because my intentions have been set. I’m doing my part to bring my intentions to life and I’m letting God handle the rest.

xoxo,

Sheba