Fix It Up and Start Again: Finding Safety in Routine and Reset
For the Safe Spaces online takeover, the young people of Comics Youth have been reflecting on the various behaviours and spaces which bring them a sense of safety, protection, belonging, and calm. As Lucas Mannion explains, sometimes a safe space can involve something as simple as a set Sunday routine and the maintenance of a clean bedroom…
When Sunday rolls around I only have two things on my to do list:
Run 5km
Tidy and clean my room
I know not everyone is keen on running so I’m not going to preach for anyone to take it up, but looking after your safe space (which for me is tidying my room) is a really easy way to look after your mental health.
Suffice it to say, I really look forward to Sundays at the minute. And why? Because they are one of the only days where I have a set routine.
Before lockdown I never tidied regularly so my room was always in a state. It was only during times when I was struggling that I decided to clear up, because I knew it helped calm me down or improve my mood.
“Tidy room, tidy mind” and all that, but I also think that it made me feel productive when I found it difficult to do anything else.
So, when lockdown started, I picked a day when I would tidy up. It was a way to maintain some form of normal when everything else seemed to be up in the air.
At first all I did was change my bedsheets and pick everything up off my floor. But now I also hoover the carpet, and clean my windows, mirrors and my sink (yes I have a sink in my room, I know it’s weird) and I do this without fail, every single week.
It’s such a good way to relieve stress for me; going to sleep in clean pyjamas and fresh sheets, with everything in its proper place instead of scattered across the carpet.
It’s like pressing reset on my week.
Things may be strange and messy right now, but I know I can tidy it up and start again on Sundays.