So far the circuit breaker has been challenging for me both mentally and socially. We are about one month into online learning and this new circuit breaker situation which is all very new to me so there are some aspects I still find challenging to get used to.

Throughout these times we all have had to change many aspects of our lifestyle and make it the new ‘normal’ for the time being. I have definitely had to adjust to many changes however I think the biggest change has been on my physical activity in terms of being able to maintain regular exercise.

I really enjoy sports and in particular team sports and before this circuit breaker I was playing touch rugby both in school and with an outside team. I really liked the training as although they were hard and physically challenging, I really enjoyed spending time with friends I am unable to see throughout most days. In both my in school and outside teams there are girls from different grades and different schools so keeping up with this regular training has also at the same time allowed me to maintain social activities.

Exercising individually, having the motivation, and pushing myself to my limits has been much more challenging. This is something which I had to overcome as spending almost the whole day on screens due to online learning, at the end of the day I was both mentally tired and needed to go out and do something different. Throughout all the rules given during the circuit breaker, I always managed to go out on runs in my neighborhood and in parks which I am very grateful for as I was not greatly limited in that way. I started doing more exercise and going on runs with members of my family as well so I found other ways to motivate me to go out and do the same regular exercise as before. I think the type of fitness I was doing changed as well from training and doing sports which I really enjoyed, to more online workouts or runs.

However, I am quite proud that I was able to maintain this level of physical activity and exercise as in my opinion, this is very crucial not only to stay fit and healthy however for our mental wellbeing as well. I think exercise allows us to think about other things other than problems we may be having and allows us to remove our stress and anxiety and other feelings we don’t want. During this time, going out for runs has definitely been more enjoyable than staying at home and doing online workouts as I think a change in environment and scenery has been very crucial for my mental wellbeing.