Remember you are not alone. Because what is DIFFERENT here is that everyone is impacted! Your neighbor, family, boss and friends as well as your counterparts around the world are all going through something similar. So, it's important to remember:
Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way. - Viktor E. Frankl
This is the challenge each of us must rise to! If we're going to be stuck at home, we may as well make the most of it.
As part of a 2 part blog, here are 10 things you can do to make your life better while physically isolated:
1) Create a Healthy, Supportive Routine
When we feel powerless or helpless (as so many of us do at the moment), one EXTREMELY easy thing to do is to create a routine or schedule. While we're all stuck anxiously waiting at home, it's easy to lose our sense of time - how many memes are going around making fun of what day it is? The struggle is real! Days can begin to blend into each other. A routine can give us an anchor and greater sense of control over our lives. And if you have children, creating a routine is especially important to give them a sense of normalcy.
This routine or schedule can be as simple as:
• 7 am - Wake-up
• 8 am - Breakfast
• 10 am - Exercise
• 11 am - Talk to friends
• 12.00 pm - Lunch
• 1-4 pm - Learning or a home project
• 5 pm - Make & eat dinner
• 7 pm - Talk to close family
• 8 pm - Reading or journaling
• 10 pm - Bed
Be sure to include food preparation, social time, exercise and outdoor time (we need the vitamin D from the sun) and some learning or creativity so you get some benefit from this challenging time.
It's also important to recognize weekends because it's too easy for weeks to blur together. So, make a looser schedule for your weekends. For example, you could include:
• Sleeping in/later bedtime
• Brunch
• "Treats"
• Movie night with popcorn
• A virtual happy hour with friends or colleagues
• A larger project, perhaps some art, craft, gardening or home redecoration.
So, create a routine for a sense of control and mastery over your environment and life circumstances. Reclaim what power you can over your own life, because with all this uncertainty it's important for you - and especially important for children to have predictability.
2) Build Your Physical Strength, Fitness Levels or Flexibility!
Building your physical strength is powerful and health-boosting! Not only is physical strength and flexibility life-affirming and good for our health, but feeling more physically powerful actually helps us feel more empowered and less helpless in life too!
So add some physical activity into your schedule - as little as 15 minutes daily. Maybe by the end of this you'll be more fit or even be able to do 10 (or 100!) sit-ups!
There are many options to boost your physical strength and health. Here are some ideas:
- Take up a yoga practice - excellent for strength-building, flexibility - and calm! There are lots of online options.
Here
is a list of 10 that are free and Yogi approved!
- Do sit-ups or push-ups. Then see if you can get to 10 (or more - depending on where you start)! Always keep your physical abilities in mind when trying something new.
- There are so many online fitness classes on YouTube - for beginners, experts - with equipment and also with no equipment whatsoever.
PopSugar Fitness
has many options to choose from.
- Take a walk around your neighborhood (or where ever it is safe) and look for things that you've
never seen before. Some neighborhoods are getting together to hide things around their homes and in windows for people to find as they walk around.
- Brush the dust off your bikes and take a ride (don't forget your helmet!).
REMEMBER: BEing stronger = FEELING stronger and more in control! And building your PHYSICAL strength or fitness = REDUCED feelings of helplessness!
3) Learn with Non-Fiction Books:
Use this time at home to educate yourself with non-fiction books. There is so much to be gained - like self-confidence, negotiation skills, health (sleep, nutrition), how to have difficult conversations and much more.
What keeps you up at night? There's probably a book about that! What do you wish you were better at? There's probably a book about that too!
Here are some book ideas to get you thinking:
• If you want to become more creative,
here
is a list of 25 books that you can read to boost your creativity in any area of your life.
• Think (or rethink?) how you live with books like "The Omnivore's Dilemma" by Michael Pollan (also available in a young reader's version), "Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures" by Carlo Petrini, "Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America" by Barbara Ehrenreich, "Doughnut Economics" by Kate Raworth.
• Get personally inspired with "Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts" and "The Gifts of Imperfection" by Brene Brown, or "Man's Search for Meaning" by Viktor E. Frankl.
• Up-skill yourself with "Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most" by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen.
• Learn about the human mind with "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell or "The Whole Brain Child" by Daniel J. Siegel MD and Tina Payne Bryson, PhD.
• Get healthier with "Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams" by Matthew Walker PhD.
• Be more confident and discover your strengths with "The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance - What Women Should Know" by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman" or "Now, Discover Your Strengths (How to Develop Your Talents and Those of the People You Manage)" by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton.
• Finally, read a memoir! Choose someone you admire, get inspired and learn how other people think - and live their lives. One of the best ones I've ever read is "Not Without My Daughter" by Betty Mahmoody. It's an old one (and you may have to go to eBay or Amazon), but it will keep you on the edge of your seat until the very last page!
Reading one book will expand your mind, reading several of these books is going to make you more interesting, help you learn new skills - and maybe even make you more employable too!
And, if you're reading physical books, a great place to donate them to when you're done is Better World Books. There are green collection bins all around the country. BWB is a non-profit organization that collects books and sells them to benefit Our Annual Literacy Grants fund literacy and educational nonprofits and libraries for specific projects — the front lines of the fight to reduce global poverty through education.
4) Gain a New Skill with Online Learning:
There are so many opportunities online to gain a new skill and they're growing by the day! Grow your personal or creative skills or choose a new skill to learn and take back to work with online training providers like Coursera
or Udemy. There are many other providers as well.
If there's a skill you always wanted to learn, search for it. But be sure to read the course descriptions thoroughly, check reviews if there are any - and check money-back guarantees as you need to! And with so many learning options ranging from FREE to tens of dollars to the low hundreds of dollars, there will be something out there just perfect for you.
5) Explore your Life Vision:
Rather than watching endless news streams, you can choose to focus on a bigger picture - your future. What do you want from the rest of your life? What would you be disappointed that you did NOT do? Where do you envision yourself in 10 years?
Having a clear vision of how you want your life to be is a powerful motivator. A vision helps us work towards our goals, take action and make change. Soon, we'll all be super-busy again - and a vision might be just what you need stay focused!
Here are 5 questions to ponder or journal around to go deeper:
• What do you want or really desire in your life? Better relationships? Healthier body, mind and spirit? Higher income?
• How do you want to feel?
• What do you really, really want to be different in your life?
• What will have happened in 3 years if your life is spectacular and you feel fantastic about yourself?
• What's your dream for this lifetime? Imagine you're 80 years old and looking back over your life; what did you do that made you proud and happy?
TIP: Remember to think possibility not probability! Don't limit yourself and your ideas because you don't believe something is likely. Instead believe it's possible - and even if you don't get all the way there, you may get close - or even find something better along the way!