As we head into yet another extended Covid lockdown here in Sydney, I’m finding that more and more of my clients and the people I speak with regularly, are saying that life presently feels like Groundhog Day - Groundhog Day is a 1993 American fantasy comedy film, starring Bill Murray, who plays Phil Connors, a cynical television weatherman covering the annual Groundhog Day event in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, who becomes trapped in a time loop, forcing him to relive February 2nd over and over and over again..
With a similar theme, but nastier daily consequences for the main actor; Tom Cruise - is 2014 Sci-Fi Action film “Edge of Tomorrow” starring Tom Cruise and Emily Blunt. Cruise's character dies every day in battle as he is sent to fight in a futuristic alien war where most of Europe is invaded by an alien race, but Cruise’s character is a PR army type rather than a trained for combat soldier. Cruise finds himself experiencing a time loop, as he relives each day, trying to find a way to defeat the alien invaders.
Curiously, the underlying standout for me from both of these films, is that Bill Murray’s character does something different every day to ensure that his day isn’t repetitive and boring and he starts to really enjoy the change he sees within himself. The other characters in the movie, unaware of Bill Murray’s time loop conundrum – are living each Groundhog day for their first time ever, but within the course of their one day are seeing the improvement in him as a character and liking what they see as well.
Tom Cruise’s character remembers where all the bad things happened (his character’s demise usually) and seeks out the training required for betterment of his skills. Seasoned soldier Emily Blunt’s character trains Cruise, every day, and each day he gets further and further through the day until eventually overcoming the aliens and winning the day.
Back to real life and I believe each day of our lives can be filled with lots of little victories to win the day, if, like soldiers, we have a plan of attack. It’s easier said than done, but in both Bill Murray & Tom Cruise’s case they knew what each day would bring as they had experienced the same thing the day before.
If you are feeling like each day is every day or another yesterday and you want to get the edge on tomorrow – sit down and write a plan!
Recently the NSW Premier for the very first time that I am aware of, over the course of this Covid Conundrum, leaned on NSW Chief Psychiatrist Dr Murray Wright for support in addressing the state of NSW on Covid Resilience –
Dr. Wright said, "What people need to do is to have a plan to manage their stress and to monitor it and review it on a regular basis."
Dr Wright recommended people have a plan, that they set goals, monitor, and review their goals and their plan daily, that they get daily exercise, monitor their diet, sleep and alcohol intake, keep in contact with people and have meaningful conversations.
Dr Wright finished with the following.
"The signs of things not working include difficulties with sleep, difficulties with concentration, feeling unduly fatigued, feeling overwhelmed, irritable, or consuming too much alcohol. If any of those things are happening either to you or people around you, you should make it a subject of consideration."
I think Dr. Wright's Covid Resilience Plan is one of the best and I'm adding him to my list of good doctors, 6 of whom I reference often.
The best six doctors I know of, and no one can deny it, are sunshine, water, air and rest, exercise and diet.
1. Sunshine
- Get at least 10 minutes of sunlight a day (even better, watch the sunrise and the sunset)
2. Water - Drink at least 30mls of water for every kilogram of your bodyweight. If that is 100 kilos, then that is 3 litres. Anyone I have known who was 100kgs when I recommended they drink 3 litres of water a day, weighs less than 100kgs today.
3. Air
– Deep breathing and breathwork are a form of meditation, every form of meditation I know of, centres the individual on their breath before anything else – at the very least get outdoors for fresh air.
4. Rest
- Get 8 hours of sleep. Commutingless Covid, saves each of us at least an hour in travel, so you can choose the active hours before 9am to be 4 hours or 1 hour right now, so even a midnight Cowboy can get up at 8am – my personal trick is to set an 8-hour timer, rather than an alarm.
5. Exercise
– Move for 20 minutes at least daily – even if it is a 10-minute walk out from your home and 10 minutes back – 100 burpees in sets of 10 across the day or try to beat your time for 100 burpees every time you do them - or 10 sets of 1 minutes of push ups and 10 sets of 1 minute air squats over the course of a day.
6. Diet
– I love dinner parties but stop throwing intimate dinner parties for 4 people when you are the only one attending. Like curbing your appetite for gossip, don’t say anything about someone you wouldn’t say in front of them; a basic diet would be don’t eat what you wouldn’t eat if someone else were watching.
The simple 5-word weight control mantra is Eat Less and Move more.
Given we are not in a time loop, we only get one life – one day at a time and even that is not necessarily guaranteed -
Confucius said “We have two lives, and the second begins when we realize we only have one”
So, with your one life, are you going to let Covid, forced lockdowns and curfews shape your thoughts and actions and eventual destiny?
You see, I believe we can use this time to either just survive or to absolutely thrive. We sweat in training to avoid bleeding in battle.
Both Bill Murray’s character in Groundhog Day and Tom Cruise's character in Edge of Tomorrow, despite having each day over again, practiced CANEI. Constant And Never-Ending Improvement.
Stress is determined by the degree to which we feel in control or out of control of our lives - start controlling what you can control in how you live your life by writing out a “perfect day in the life of” you
plan.
How would your perfect day look and feel to you?
Write down on paper, how a realistically perfect day would look to you and then break it down into choices and choosing how you plan to respond to everything that comes your way.
Choose your wake-up time, Choose how much you drink of any liquid, Choose to slow down your breathing, Choose to take rest breaks, Choose your daily movement, Choose what you eat, Choose who you socialise with, Choose what you read, Choose what you watch – Choose how you think and choose to think positively and choose to think Big!
Choose Life!
Rita: "This day was perfect. You couldn't have planned a day like this."
Phil: "Well, you can. It just takes an awful lot of work.”
— Phil Connors, Groundhog Day
Choose Well
DL