‘It was like a tsunami of ideas’: lives transformed in the pandemic

In February of this year, graphic designer Aoibhne Hogan, 45, of greetstreet.com, was receiving emails from clients postponing jobs. By March, all of her work – artwork for bars, restaurants and hotels – was gone.

“Thank God for the Covid payment,” she recalls. “I don’t know what I would have done without it.”

For years, her own artwork had sat on her desk, waiting for her to find the time to do it. "I've always wanted to design my own artwork and I'd been following other artists on Instagram who had been licensing out patterns, but the bread-and-butter work always came first. I had got to the point where I thought, well, I'll get to do this when I retire."

As lockdown loomed she made a plan. “I basically said, this is my new job. I thought it might be hard to get started, but I could not believe the outpouring that followed. It was like a tsunami of ideas.”

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Work was submitted to eight different agencies and four expressed interest, before she was signed up by a Toronto-based agency. “That was my dream aim,” she says. “I still can’t believe it. Now I feel like I’m in a race to get as much done as I can before all this ends.”

She is not the only one to see the pandemic as a catalyst for change. Transformation coach Niamh Ennis has seen a sharp increase in calls from new clients since Covid began, all looking to make significant changes.

“Everyone has had time to re-evaluate,” she says, “and to think about things differently and with real clarity. Every new client has been asking, what matters to me? Who matters to me?”

For those who have felt truly stuck, escaping the busyness of life has enabled them to find long-searched for answers. “We all thought hobbies were something we didn’t have time to do,” says Ennis. “But even something as simple as baking bread has helped us to slow down and reconnect with ourselves. And when we reconnect with ourselves we know what we want and what we don’t.”

When 44-year-old Isabelle Coyle realised the country was about to enter lockdown she left Dublin with her children, decamping to the house she and her husband, Eoin, had built in Sligo. "It's in a wild spot, right on the Atlantic and it was wonderful," she says. "We really did feel quite removed from it all."

Being there with the children made her realise that Sligo was her true home. “This lifestyle suits us so much; we have everything we need. We are an outdoorsy family and we have the ocean to swim and surf in and we are close to the mountains for hikes. I have a love of horses and when everything kicked off we went down to the local riding school and offered to look after two of them. That was an incredible experience for everyone.”

Being in nature with her children has reaffirmed her values. “We were moving too fast in the city. The children had so many activities. We’ve realised life doesn’t have to be this busy. It’s so good for the children to be bored. They are more creative now, more content. They have learned to work together and have acquired essential life skills. We’ve also learned that you really don’t need to be so buying so much. We could never have this quality of life in the capital.”

Others have learned that when an established routine collapses it can make way for healthier habits. When lockdown left Judith Meagher, a busy grandmother, with more time on her hands, she took up pilates over Zoom. Now she does it five or six times a week. "It was a life-saver," says the 72-year-old. "The discipline of it. It gave me such a focus and there was a huge sense of achievement."

The switch to Zoom was easy. “My children set it up on my phone and I loved the immediacy of it – all I had to do was pull on the leggings. I didn’t even have to get dressed. Now I have an iPad and I don’t know myself.”

Being in this routine has helped her keep focused about the future. "I love the travel. I am one of nine and I like to visit my family who are all around the world and also to spend the winter in Spain. I can't do that now but I tell myself I am keeping my strength and wellbeing so when the time comes that I can travel I will be able to do it and I will enjoy it."

Coyle believes lockdown has changed us all. “All around me I see people turning to nature, whether that be swimming or walking.” Hogan agrees. “I’ve always been a swimmer, but I’ve never been a winter swimmer,” she says. “Now I go down early to the sea and it’s magic. The challenge of it. And the exhilaration you feel afterwards, you begin to really crave that. It’s great for depression, it’s like a big slap in the face. And there’s a real buzz. Everyone is smiling and taking selfies.”

For Ennis, it’s only the beginning. “Connection is everything now. Over the next while we will see people campaign for greater flexibility in work, which will enable many to relocate closer to family. Those abroad who felt stranded and isolated during this time, will contemplate returning home. Now we’ve all had a chance to think about our values, the question people will ask again and again is: What will I become?”

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