It seems that in a few short weeks our whole lives have turned upside down, this virus has impacted everything about normal life and it can be hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel at times.
It is quite reasonable to be feeling anxious or depressed at the thought of a deadly virus going around and being cooped up at home, so here are some tips to try and prevent over thinking and getting through this period to come out stronger on the other side!
- Try To Build a Routine
If you are working from home, minding the kids or just trying to pass time, try and stick to a routine that includes the things you would have done. For example wake up, workout, shower and get changed out of your pj’s, maybe do your hair ( even if you are alone) and then start the chores for the day or make breakfast.
2. Do At least an Hour of Exercise
Our physical health has a major impact on our mental wellbeing, excercise boosts our happy hormones called serotonin meaning you will feel lighter and happier. If you used to go to the gym you can try ordering some weights online and doing a home workout or if you never managed to find enough time to workout because of your crazy busy routine maybe now is the time to start!
The time you would have spent commuting or dropping the kids to school can be used to try jogging, cycling or a home workout in the garden using your own body weight.
3. Give yourself Breaks from your phone and Social Media
It is so easy to get distracted by your phone and before you know it you have spent four hours researching and scaring yourself on the virus. It is great to stay up to date but there is a such thing as overdoing it. Try and choose a time frame where you will leave your phone in a another room and focus on yourself, remeber you cannot pour out a empty cup.
4. Try Not To Believe Everything You Read Online
Stick to reliable sources such as the NHS website and GOV.uk rather than believing and passing on everything you read on a whatsapp thread, remember anyone can write something and pass it on , it doesn’t necessarily mean that it is true or useful information. Let’s not be the ones to feed into other people’s fears.
5. Stay Connected
It’s important to remember that we are all in the same boat at the moment, we are dealing with a crisis that has hit the whole world so your freinds and family might be feeling as lonely and depressed as you, try facetiming them or snapchatting them regularly and discuss your concerns.
6. Help others to help yourself
If you are a fellow key worker you will know just how vulnerable this situation has made those who are old and alone, keep an eye out for neighbours when you are ordering your groceries or going out to get essentials as they might have no one to do this.
7. Start a new hobby
We are living in an age where we have information at our fingertips, it has never been easier to learn a new skill or hobby, all you have to do is go onto youtube. Use this time to try something you have always wanted to do but never got around to; make new healthy recipes, try out a new makeup technique, try gardening or read a book.
8. Clear Out The Clutter
Use your time to clear have a clear out and organise your things, you can try removing shoes and clothes out of your wardrobe that you have no use for anymore and keeping them aside to donate to charity.
9. Have Me time
This can be seen as a rare and useful opportunity, you have all the time you need to apply face masks, hair masks, dermaroll your skin regularly (because you don’t need to wear any makeup at home and you won’t be in the sun). You can also have a bubble bath and switch off for an hour or so.
10. Sleep well
Avoid checking your phone for at least half an hour before you go to sleep, and wake up at the time you usually would for work rather than sleeping an extra 4/5 hours to wake up at midday feeling groggy.
11. Remain calm and be positive
There is no reason to panic if you are doing everything you can to stay safe, wash hands regularly and keep surfaces clean, clean shopping before using it and shield or self isolate if you fall into a high risk group and only go out if it is essential. Don’t forget that we often scare ourselves with the number of deaths but there have been many recoveries too and some people show only mild symptoms!
