More than seven months have gone by since the first shutdown and quarantine. I feel like everyone started strong, but our strength is waning. Every day, while the pandemic continues, we wake up to face the unknown and stress. I have personally struggled in finding motivation with staying the course and following the health guidelines. I am trying to navigate through a series of new challenges (how to teach PE remotely, homeschool my children, continue with Coaching Kitchen classes) all while coping with the stresses of doubt, fear, and confusion for the future. Pandemic burnout is real. And now the holiday season is here – which is traditionally a very stressful time for everyone.
Earlier today I was scanning my Pinterest feed and came across a quote that said “We cannot control the world around us, but we can control where we look and put our focus.” It made me stop and remember that we must focus on what we can control and let go over everything else. We shouldn’t forget to take care of our mental and physical health. My little family and I have put together some schedules and activities to make sure that we are focusing on caring for our mental and physical health. I thought I would share some of our ideas in case they are useful to any of you.
Social distancing should be called “Physical Distancing.” I’m sad that the term “social distance” exists. As humans we must socialize, but from a minimum distance of 6 ft. I know that spending time with family and friends is extremely important during the holidays. Remember to wear a mask, especially around your friends and family. Protect your aging parents and your friends and family members with pre-existing conditions. When you plan time with your friends and family this holiday season – think about wearing a mask and distance because you love them, because you want to spend time with them, because you want your children to stay in school, and because you want to end this pandemic.
Scheduling Time Each Day to Disconnect: My family does not want the stress of the outside world to take over our joy and well-being. Every day, we block off time to check for updates and changes to the covid situation, but we are also remembering to turn off devices so we can be mindful and enjoy moments together as a family.
Creating a Daily Schedule / Routine: We are creating a daily schedule so we can make sure that we are filling our time at home with the things we want to do during this downtime.
- Exercise – My family is going to make sure that we exercise every day. We plan on going for walks, runs, bike rides, hiking, playing Wii games, and doing online exercise videos (YouTube, Fiton phone app).
- Personal / Self Care – We are scheduling time every day for personal alone time and self care. Some activities that my family enjoys are reading, writing in our journals, baking, meditation, manicures, pedicures, art, Legos, puzzles, and card games.
- Family Time – As a family, we have board games, outside exercise time, family meals, playing outside games like bocce, ladder ball, cornhole, paddle ball, soccer, volleyball, etc.
- Productivity / Work / School – My kids have approximately 5 hours of school work every day. We are blocking out that time so we know it is dedicated to work only communications.
- Mental Health – Making sure we are disconnected from the news and social media. We are working on meditation, stretching, writing in our journals, and spending time outside.
- Housework / Projects – We have decided to spend some time catching up on house projects that we have put off because of time restraints. We spent sometime doing a deep clean in our home, but are not going to obsessively clean our space. We have decided that once a deep clean is done that we only need to do our regular cleaning cycle.
When you plan time with your friends and family this holiday season – think about wearing a mask and distance because you love them, because you want to spend time with them, because you want your children to stay in school, and because you want to end this pandemic.
I surely hope that all of you are safe and well. Hopefully, you will also take some time to disconnect and to take care of your health and of those people whom you care about.