This pandemic has been harder in ways than we could have ever imagined.
What has come from this time has also been beautiful. Before the pandemic self-care was relegated to a day. # SelfcareSunday was a trending hashtag. But being home has now reminded us that we need to schedule our small pockets of self-care, every day.
It no longer has to be an entire day event. Instead, I am reminded that I can do small things daily to help with my self-care. My favorites are journaling, meditating, exercising, a nice phone call conversation, and even buying myself flowers. Yes! You don’t have to wait for anyone else to buy you flowers.
- Try Journaling…
The idea is to get it all out of your head and on paper. I have been journaling since I was fourteen years old and I still have most of my journals from over the years. Every morning before I start my day, I journal. I get all of my thoughts, dreams, and concerns out on paper. I journal for 30 minutes straight. It’s refreshing to start the day with a clean slate and focus.
Years ago, I read a book called The Artist Way. One of the prompts in the book was to journal every day for 30 minutes. It’s a brain dump, write whatever comes. Take a look at the book, maybe it will help you as it did me.
2. Keep In Contact…
One of the hardest things about being in isolation is not being able to connect with friends and family. Before the pandemic, the thought of Facetime was foreign to me. I don’t own an iPhone. I had a work colleague who would interview potential clients over Skype, that wasn’t me. I loved meeting potential clients either in their homes or at a local cafe.
Well, the pandemic taught us Zoom was the new way to gather. After a while, I started to suffer from “Zoom fatigue”. Now, I have learned to appreciate and make time for phone calls. I make time to call people instead of texting. There is nothing more soothing than a nice conversation with someone. The key is to stay connected.
3. Meditate For Relaxation…
As much as I love Yoga. I think what I missed most was the meditative states in between poses, Savasana. This is one of my favorite poses. You get into this pose after most poses. You can either get into Savasana or child’s pose. These poses are meant to be restorative. Although Yoga for me is very calming, I find my mind does not stay quiet when I practice yoga at home. I need to quiet my mind and there is no better way than with meditation.
Meditation in my mind is Yoga’s first cousin. I found a ton of meditations on YouTube University, but sometimes I do find the light from my screen to be a huge distraction. There are a bunch of meditation apps. I have tried a few of them and my favorite is Liberate. This app was a game-changer for me.
The app meditation guides are led by BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) I am more at ease hearing these meditations. There is something to be said about hearing a person who sounds and speaks like you, leading a meditation. The app also has meditations for 5 minutes or as long as 40 minutes. There are a lot of meditations; my favorites are relaxing with Insomnia, Gratitude for the Body, and The Joy of Gratitude.
4. Work It Out…
The first year of the pandemic I did a lot of emotional eating. I mean honestly, who didn’t. I gained 20lbs, I loved my pandemic body. When the summer came I bought new bikinis. I set up shop at Brighton beach and got as much sun as possible. But the reality of that excess weight started to strain on my body.
My knees were the beneficiaries of this excess weight. They were not happy and took every opportunity to let me know I needed to do something. I had given up my gym membership at the beginning of the pandemic when they all closed. I also love hotbox yoga, but they were also closed. I needed to find a way to workout at home.
I went to the University of YouTube and found Chloe Ting. She has free workout routines in 15-minute intervals. That seemed easy enough. She also has several 3-week challenges on her website. The complete workout routines are on average 30 to-45 minutes. This has been a game-changer.
Did you know a 30-minute workout is only 15% of your day? It’s a no-brainer for me.
5. Bring Music Into Your Life…
At the beginning of the pandemic, I was consuming a lot of news trying to stay abreast of what was happening. Between Zoom interviews, online meetings, and just way too many Zoom parties. It was all too much. I was being overstimulated, I was missing music.
There is a reason why the saying goes, “Music calms the savage beast”.
I enjoy my Sonos system and between Spotify, Apple Music, and Amazon Prime music I have enough playlists to run all day and night. It is so soothing to have music playing all day. I can’t say enough about how much music has helped me during the pandemic.
Also, DJ D-Nice was on heavy rotation.
6. Keep It Fresh…
Every week, I buy myself flowers. There is no better mood booster than fresh-cut flowers in the home. I put my flowers somewhere I can see them.
They are either on the dining room table or next to the TV. They really lift and liven the space. Spring brings lovely yellow daffodils. They add a vibrant pop of color to the rooms. If you can get them before they bloom it brings me added joy to see them open after a day. They are sold in groups of 6 and are relatively inexpensive. I buy between 4-8 bunches. It brings me so much joy to see them in stores.
Let me know which self-care tips are your favorite and share some of your self-care tips with me!
