Wow who would have thought a couple of weeks ago that a lot of countries in the world would be in lockdown. New Zealand went into lockdown last Thursday and I had already been self isolating for a week before that because of a trip to Melbourne. But we can all thrive through this lock down period in our wee bubbles if we put some good practices in place from the start.
Yes we will all have our moments where it all seems too hard and we will struggle at times but if we put some good principles in place now we can get through this. Kiwis are known for their resilience and adaptability. Let’s put these wonderful qualities to good use to enable us to thrive in our lockdown bubble.
1. Establish A Routine Will Help You Thrive In Your Bubble
Humans are creatures of habit. Most of us like the structure of our day to day routines, that is why it is important for us to continue these routines in lock down.
If you walked to work – go for a walk when you first get up. Try to stick to your normal eating/work/relaxation/bed times as much as possible. It is also a good idea to split your house into areas for work and fun/relaxation so there is some separation between these areas of your life. This will be our new norm for a while so try and make these areas as seperate as possible.
2. Declutter Your Home And Work Space
If you want to clear the clutter in your mind, you also need to clear the clutter in your home and workspace. Physical clutter can often cause too much stimulation, and ultimately lead to more stress and overwhelm in your life.
Look around you in the areas where you are now spending your time, and see if there is a way to reduce any physical clutter. Organise your belongings, clean out your fridge, make sure your bedroom is simply decorated without laundry everywhere. Your home office should also be clutter-free in order for you to concentrate only on work.
3. Stay Calm And Thrive In Your Bubble
Overcoming the stress in your life is so important if we are going to flourish in our bubble. Notice what your stressors are and working to reduce them is a start. However remember during the time you can’t prevent every situation that could potentially cause you stress. Stress is your body’s natural response, which leads to a fight or flight response. You still need to live your life, so it is more a matter of how you react to stressful situations now that we are all in one.
4. Remain Positive In Your Bubble
Being positive has a wonderful impact on your mind and emotional health, as well as helping you to handle stress. Being positive doesn’t mean constant sunshine and rainbows. But you can understand that life isn’t always perfect, accept the flaws, and move past them. Understand that stress is a normal part of life since unexpected things like we are are going through now can happen.
However, instead of letting the stress affect you mentally and physically to an extreme level, you can remain calm by remaining positive. Just try to think of some type of positive element, whether you go through a list of pros and cons, or you simply try to find the one thing that could be good about this stressful situation. Trust me, there is at least one. This will make a big difference to your wellbeing.
5. Practice Mindful Techniques For Overwhelm
If you feel like you are drowning underneath your responsibilities, worries, and stress, you might be dealing with a bad case of overwhelm. This can seem like something everyone deals with, but it does affect your mental and physical health, which means you don’t have to just deal with it. There are ways to reduce your overwhelm, starting with mindfulness.
So, what is mindfulness? It is a state of being more aware of your thoughts and intentions, finding a place of acceptance, and living in the presence.The first part of mindfulness is living in the present, which can help a lot if you have been overwhelmed lately from stress in your life.
Ask yourself what is important right now? Not in a week or a month or a year. Not worrying about what already has happened. JUST focus on RIGHT NOW. This can help you to organise your thoughts and find what your priorities are.
6. Practice Healthy Daily Habits To Flourish
Some healthy daily habits to consider are:
Eating a healthy, well-balanced diet.
What you put into your body makes a big difference in how you feel, not just physically, but mentally as well. You can nourish your body and mind by eating a healthy diet.
Getting regular exercise.
Exercise is wonderful for relieving stress, and is a healthy habit everyone should make a daily habit. It doesn’t have to be hours long. Walking every day, yoga, riding a bike, or dancing in your living room all count as daily exercise and we can do all these while we are in lock down.
Avoiding unhealthy habits.
There are also some unhealthy habits that might be making your stress worse. For example, if you drink large amounts of alcohol or participate in recreational drugs, they are covering up your stress in the short-term, but in the long-term are actually making it much worse. Excessive amounts of caffeine can also make your stress worse.
Making sleep a priority.
Everyone needs sleep, so don’t feel like getting little sleep is doing you any good. You need high quality sleep, no matter how busy your schedule is. Don’t make light of only needing to sleep a couple hours a day, because this is NOT normal OR healthy for you.
Getting rest every day.
Just like sleep, you also need rest every day! If you have a busy schedule, then make an appointment for rest and self-care if you have to. This is a priority to reducing stress!
7. Limit The News In Your Lockdown Bubble
Doom surfing can become obsessive. Sometimes it is necessary to step away from the 24 hour updates and news channels. I try to limit myself catching up by looking at Stuff when I wake up and watching the 6pm news at the end of the day. If something comes up that is really important someone will let you know.
8. Learn Something New While In Lockdown
I have just signed up for a course at Yale called ‘The Science of Wellbeing”.https://www.coursera.org/learn/the-science-of-well-being
I was talking to a friend earlier who is keen to learn Maori language. Use this time in lockdown to keep your mind stimulated with both fun and intellectual tasks. I have a lot of sewing and knitting that I would love to do that that will be my creative outlet during this time.
Remember there will be times even with all these positive suggestions in place that you will feel sad and lonely. This is of course completely understandable. We are going through a scary and unprecedented time. When you feel like this try and do something that cheers you up. This could be a virtual coffee with a friend, listening to your favourite song, having a bath with essential oils or curling up with the latest novel. It could also be doing something kind for someone else.Find your happy place and your mood will lift.
I have said in my program ‘ Discover Wellness’ https://www.lynleyclarkwellness.co.nz/discover-wellness/ that times of adversity bring out our greatest strengths and a lot of us will emerge stronger and happier when we taste freedom again.
