COVID-19. Well, here we all are, a year and half later, deep in the trenches of a Pandemic. We probably never thought we’d still be here but it is what it is. Some of us have used that last 12 months to get to know ourselves, rethink our lives, change careers, take up new hobbies, bake banana bread (and eat it), date online, break up with our partners, get to know the neighbours, go insane working from home, have 20 Zoom calls a week, open and close the fridge at least 43 times per day, attempt to lose 14lbs for the 4th time…and so on and so forth. We all know the drill at this stage don’t we?
All jokes aside, this has been an extremely taxing and trying time for many of us. It has been nothing short of overwhelming at times particularly when faced with such uncertainty. Many of us feel anxious, helpless, discouraged, and out of control. Dr. Monique Tello, MD, and contributor to Harvard Health Publishing’, states in the article ‘6 self-care steps for a pandemic — always important, now essential’, that we need to “acknowledge the turbulence in our lives” and “grant ourselves the time and space to acknowledge our loss, as we are all experiencing loss.” Additionally she states that we need to “Intentionally create ‘shutdown’ time in our schedule. This can be healthy time alone, for meditation and quietude.” Needless to say, as the entire world is stuck in this pandemic together, there’s a plethora of self-care articles online instructing us on how to take care of ourselves physically and mentally. Without even reading any of them, we all have a fair idea what we should be doing. Getting enough sleep, eating healthily, getting exercise, spending time in nature, focusing on the present, limiting screen time, focusing on what we can control, maintaining a routine, building a gratitude list etc…
But there are other little things you could be doing though to keep you sane both mentally and physically. Quite often they are smaller less obvious things. Have you thought of any of those below?
Infographic Created by Dervla Byrne using Canva
