Introduction:
I changed the title to 10 positive consequences of covid19 as I read in the post that 10 were requested, and I already wrote 10 of them when I noticed the 5 in the title. It can't do any harm sharing 10 instead of 5 as they are positive things, right? I will leave the intro as is and just start explaining the points below as they are in-depth enough needing no introduction.
10 Positive things about COVID19 for me personally:
1: I can't speak for everyone of course, but here we have definitely taken the time to have more quality time as a family. Although at first, during the first lockdown the situation wasn't ideal for us to be all at home and we defo had some heated arguments (read: I was so ready for school to start and boyfriend to go to the office again lol), now that we're all back in that same position I see a huge improvement of quality time.
2: We now eat three meals together instead of all separate. And we don't allow phones at the dinner table (I pushed that lol) because I want us to actually have a conversation rather than staring at our displays.
3: I cook every day, with only very few exceptions, even when I have little time, I try to force myself to cook rather than taking the easy way of ordering something.
4: I'm much more aware of what food we have in our fridge and freezer and what I buy. I noticed that there's very little waste in our household as I'm trying to prepare meals with what we have and get out of my comfort zone. We even ate vegetarian twice last week and we loved it.
5: I got bored during the first lockdown and decided I would finally go and get my TEFL exam as I've always wanted that and never actually took the step. I felt I had no excuse left and signed up.
A week ago, I finished the course and now I'm waiting for the results. My average was 95%, and I really hope I passed the last 2 assessments. I would probably not have taken this step if there wasn't a lockdown.
6: My daughter has been going on a creative journey with me during both waves so far and I absolutely love to see her ability to create things grow by the day. She really makes me so proud and I really enjoy doing daily crafts with her.
I think this is great for bonding and exclusive mommy-daughter time. If there wasn't a second wave, she'd be at kindergarten now, but this second wave situation is giving us the chance to do so.
7: Because of the resistance I have for the probably mandatory vaccinations, I feel like I can do nothing against it, so I decided to accept it and just try to postpone as long as possible in the hope that maybe rules change, I have gained more interest in natural remedies. The vaccination topic has made me read into natural ways to detox from heavy metals in the body and honestly speaking I would probably not have done so if this topic wasn't the hot topic of the day.
I feel grateful for the fact that I now have some more knowledge and that there are things I can take from nature to get rid of the bad stuff they put in there. If you can't refuse to take it, you might as well be informed about things to lower the chance of getting physical discomfort.
8: The first wave made us re-assess everything we planned in the near (and longer) future regarding where we'd see ourselves live but also where we'd want our daughter to grow up. Our initial plan got erased because we didn't feel that we could take a huge risk like that with a child that is just getting used to school and making friends without us actually knowing the real political situation there.
Our next plan was to move to Spain, which we now have cancelled as well due to the pandemic and we have a bad feeling about where this all may go there in the near future. Not saying we won't eventually end up there, but not in the next few years probably. Our plan is to stay put and accept life here, but making our own bubble as comfortable as possible. Next year we will leave city life for a more quiet and cleaner area and hopefully we can achieve buying our own property.
We try to focus on what we have rather than what we miss and use the good things to create our life the way we would feel comfortable living for a certain amount of years. My gut feeling is telling me that having our own place (property) with some land is more important than seeking the ocean breeze but in a rental so that we can grow a bit of our own food and also have a place where we feel happy and can call our home. If we decide to travel in the future, we have something to fall back on to, which is important for us.
9: Something both my boyfriend and I have wanted for a time is to start exercising but we both didn't take the step to start doing so. And we have this huge park near our home where we see people running on the tracks (they have a track around the park especially for runners) daily.
We decided last week, that every day after boyfriend finishes his work, we will go there for an hour to have some playtime with the little one (for example play football) and do some running and use the free outside fitness there to start exercising again.
To my own surprise, I even started running with him while that was the last thing I thought I should do. Of course, I suck at it still, but at least we started and I'm honestly very proud of us for doing so. On top of that, it's also (again) very good quality time as a family!
10: The last thing is that for some reason I never felt back into
depression during the first (or currently) second wave even though the triggers are definitely there. I managed to hold my head up high and even made things happen that I hadn't been able to do so in years. Not only did I challenge myself to learn new things, I did so many things in total to make sure I'm feeding my body better things and also try to get healthier by exercising.
I feel so much clearer in my head and I honestly feel that I'm in a much better place than the years before this all happened. If I look back at the past 6 months I may even say that I've accomplished so much more than the years before that.
Even though during these years we could go on a holiday and we went out to do more stuff, these months have been so much more valuable in many ways. I feel more grounded and connected to my boyfriend and daughter than ever. Writing this actually made me tear up as I never said it out loud or wrote it down.
To me, putting aside the negative things going on (which I obviously don't agree with), this situation has brought me personally a lot of great things and I couldn't be more grateful for that. I feel this is just the beginning and more good will follow.
Thanks, 
