Six years for me.But weekends were really difficult,sometimes still can be especially in winter.I used to dread Friday nights going through the front door but I had my dog then so there was at least a welcome,and I could go back out for a walk.Lost him last summer so I am demotivated on the walk now.But I also made an effort to make Friday night treat night.Whether that's a long bubbly bath and music,chocolate,a film.Anything really to make it something to blunt the impact a bit.Sometimes I would go off camping,I had to move house and the garden here hadn't been touched for years so that took up weekend days whenever the weather allowed,it still does take a lot of my time up.My husband used to love sitting next to the pond at our old house so I recreated that here.I also drove to some of our favourite places and planted native daffodils and other wild plants as tribute too him.
I think the key is to plan.To do the planting required researching what I could plant where without upsetting ecosystems, planning a route,calculating if I would need a stop over.Taking food working out a new configuration for our little campervan that I could manage as I couldn't put the awning up on my own.Because I was doing it for him it made me more determined to overcome the main obstacles to getting out mainly my lack of confidence.There were times I pulled over thinking I would just like to turn round and hide away,but then made myself keep going.
More recently i,ve been doing online courses.Futurelearn does free ones If there is nothing going on at the weekend I still sometimes get the sick Friday night dread and find myself lingering before getting home but its nothing like as bad as it used to be.