Work your habitat!

For all of us the very first habitat we had was a womb – we were inside and part of someone else. Then we were outside and apart and dependent on those around us and our new habitat for food, shelter, warmth, companionship. This first outside habitat of the home then expanded to include school, parks, cafes and then the workplace. And then in early 2020 for so many of us it all collapsed back into the home. 

Hunched over on makeshift desks, in our beds, or even stood up at the ironing board work slowly colonised the home. With colleagues, children and pets sharing screens, affection, time and space. Few of us were left with the delineation that kept things apart and ourselves together. 

With the shock of many changed holiday plans and a re-tightening of the covid controls, 2021 starts with many of us feeling frayed, questioning the way that work works and hankering for connection, solitude and sacred space and time. 

Quite simply, we need to be alone and with ourselves. By creating a work habitat that allows us time to be still, quiet and think we can allow ourselves to connect deeply with all aspects of ourselves and bring our concentrated effort to our work. Whether we do this first at home, in the prayer room or on a long mountain trek, rewilding the self is about reconnecting to the wild in you. 

For many of us, that may mean using nature and time outdoors to refresh ourselves with a change of scenery. Most of us need to get outdoors in the elements – and in our element – to truly feel ourselves. (For us it’s water, mountains and forests.) It is here that things are stripped back to the essentials so we can hear our true selves; not our panicked, stressed or striving selves. It is here that we can meet the wild within. We can connect again to our true selves by reconnecting to the natural world and our place in it. 

What impact has Covid had on your habitat? Can you make changes to your work-from-home habitat and take time outdoors to reconnect and recharge you to be really present with yourself, your loved ones and of course your work?