Having spent some time on my own after my conviction I was coming to terms with a lot of things all at once, some alone time was good... but not all of the time. With these new restrictions on all of us here in the UK I thought it would be a good idea to open a thread to help each other get through potentially tough times as we're unsure at present how long this will go on for.

I remember a group task during the probation period that was interesting, it was where all group members wrote down which exact feelings they had during their offending or which might have been a part of what lead them to offend in the first place. It surprised me at the time, but after thinking about it made sense, almost everyone put "feeling lonely", so it’s SO important we tackle this any way we can NOW especially during such unprecedented times.

We, as humans, are sociable creatures! So enforced loneliness may start to have an effect on us in the next few days and weeks. Without noticing it you might feel down, upset, grumpy, your mind might start mulling over things about the past or even depression. We can also lose our - what can be called - bullet points, our things that we unconsciously rely on each week. An example of this is the football on a Saturday, it feels like the weekend isn’t the weekend when there’s no football. Or for those with a job, when you don’t go to work, you realise how much the job dictates part of your daily routine from what time you get up, what time you eat, etc. So not having these bullet points/routines may impact on how you’re feeling and that can be unsettling.

If you’re reading and you can relate to this then it’s you I’m talking to. So, here are some ideas you can do any time of the day:

• Do some EXERCISE outside (at a distance) if you can, or even some indoors, I promise you it’s good for your mental health as well as your physical health. Yes, even if you think "exercise isn't for me", try it!
• Make where you live a little bit NICER, open windows, clean stuff, have a purge of papers, leaflets, clutter, stuff that comes through the letterbox etc.
• Find a radio station you like so you can pull yourself AWAY from the TV and give your eyes a rest (there are usually radio stations on your TV if you don’t have a radio with no picture).
• YouTube - bear with me on this - it’s good for many different things such as LEARNING how to do something (either FUN that you’ve always wanted to try or learning a skill that might help you with getting work), there’s also countless meditation, yoga, exercise (just try it!) videos. And yes, there’s countless funny pet videos, but my ideas here are about trying to make best use of your time ;-)
• Supermarkets are selling out of the obvious stuff so if you can buy different things then use this time to TRY NEW FLAVOURS, things you don’t normally eat, if you don’t like it, so what, at least you’ve tried it, right? And if you do, then voila! You’ve widened your choice of food next time you’re shopping. Try this with drinks too, there's all sorts of hot and cold drinks.

I hope you find at least one of these helpful and if you have ideas to help get through the next few weeks then do share them to, at the very least, try and keep our minds active, prevent the feeling of loneliness and stay safe.