My New Normal: Daniel on Exercise and Kindness

Each week we bring you the voice of one of the young people we are working with at the Jack Petchey Foundation to share their thoughts, ideas and tips about how to stay positive and look to the future. As the lockdown is lifting we have one question for our bloggers: what do you want to see from the “New Normal”?

This week’s blog from Daniel, age 15 from Harrow, who has previously attended one of our Speak Out Challenge workshops and reached out to us on social media. He writes the things he wants to see society take forward into his “New Normal”.

Hello. I hope you’re all doing well. How are you keeping happy during these strange times?

I am here to write about what I want to see in the “new normal”. And, you see; one of the best ways to uplift the morale is through exercise. There have been times where we’ve not been at our best, our moods have been down and we may not feel like doing anything at all. However, one way that we can uplift out moods is through exercise. Exercise really helps you engage with the movement as exercise releases endorphins in your brain and this is very beneficial to your body.

But exercise does not have to be continuously doing vigorous activity for a long period of time; it could just be something like chores around the house, some walking and also some gardening. Some of those activities have been some of my favourite things to do during these tough times.

Let me describe to you how I feel before, during and after exercise.

Before exercise … sometimes I cry, a lot of times we’re feeling down, many times we feel that the world is ruling us… frankly it doesn’t have to be that way. One way through this is exercise. This can be absolutely anything. Here are some examples: going for a run, doing a home workout or even helping with some shopping.
During exercise, we get engaged with our movements, we may get tired; but there has been a source of adrenalin within us urging to keep going till the end.
After exercise … as endorphins are releases … our spirits have been uplifted, our energy levels have risen, we feel that we can now rule the world.

As exercise has a great impact on our physical and mental health then I encourage every single one of you to do one form of exercise a day… health is one of the most important factors of them all. One of the best highlights of exercise for me is through doing PE with Joe Wicks everyday 9AM. I Have enjoyed every single second of these workouts. I have also been doing his other workouts on YouTube. I’ve always enjoyed exercise. I hope there are more opportunities to do exercise for everyone in the future.

Along with exercise, what also makes us happy during these unprecedented times? Kindness. The beauty of kindness is where we all unite together as a whole; regardless if you do a big or small act of kindness, you can always make someone’s life a bit easier through acts of kindness. A great thing with kindness that it’s very broad; some examples include: helping with the chores around the house, doing some voluntary work, delivering goods to the vulnerable and so much more. Kindness will always be in our hearts and through it we can not only become our best selves but also kindness can be a morale booster.

Throughout lockdown as there have been many times where I have been feeling down and sometimes there have been times where I could not even be bothered to get out of bed early in the mornings but one way in which I’ve been boosting my morale everyday is along with exercising I’ve always encourage myself ever since an early age to be committing one act of kindness or positivity every single day no matter the circumstance and I strongly from the bottom of my heart encourage every single one of you to be doing the same thing. Trust me … it will do you so much good.

There are three most important things in life: the first is to be kind, the second thing is to be kind the third thing is to be kind.