How to keep you sanity during coranavirus
As soon as the school-closing notification dropped, the gifs of women running and jumping off cliffs started flowing. Coronavirus cleaning procedures for every store ever shopped at are flooding email inboxes. The only thing that’s clear at this point, is that things are unclear. It’s pretty likely we’re going to be spending large amounts of time in small spaces with our families for well, who knows how long. Here’s how to keep things sane in your head and your home while we all deal.
House Rules
Chaos needs order. While I enjoy not having to wake up and put pants on immediately to take my kids to school, and the freedom of a more lax schedule is appealing, I also need a quiet space where I can get my work done. And, the kids need to get their work done too.
Media time, chore time, snack time, family time. Try to visualize what you’d like the days home to look like in the most successful-for-all-of-you ways possible. Then see how you can break it down. Will you be trying to maintain set work hours while the family’s altogether? Do you have a designated space you work in where you simply can’t be interrupted? If your kids are anything like mine, they like to eat - a lot. But they also like to ask me if I can make them food - a lot. And at random times during the day that just happen to be the times I just hit a creative flow. #amIright? What kinds of snacks and meals can I pre-prep for them that they can just grab on their own? Snack times and “kitchen open” times are definitely on my house rules.
Your Rules
For yourself, just you, what are the rules you need to put into place to keep yourself emotionally, mentally and physically well? Do you need to make sure you FaceTime family, friends, a co-worker every day? Can you keep yourself moving by streaming a workout? Always wanted to try yoga or pilates? Why not do it now from your living room?
So many of us go through our day with little awareness of what makes us flow. Not just what makes us happy, but what we’re truly inspired by and are feeling the most healthy (mind, body and spirit). Now’s the time to take a look and see how you can replicate that in your own home on the daily.
Get to Know Yourself
If you’re uncertain as to what you like, what makes you tick and you had no idea what I was talking about with the whole “what makes you flow,” kind of statement listed above, it is such a great time to dig in. Seriously. Take an Enneagram test, read about Human Design, check out things like the Gene Keys. Get to know who you are and start really digging in here. Lacy Phillips “To Be Magnetic” podcast and website is an excellent option if you’re finding that you’re feeling energetically blocked. Luke Storey’s “The Lifestylist” podcast is another option for expanding your knowledge about the human body and ways we think.
While you’re learning and reading, make sure you’re journaling as well. Conscious awareness is another way of saying “pay really close attention to your thoughts.” As you’re doing some self-work reflecting on your internal responses to your ideas about these new ideas, write it out. We can go deeper as we allow ourselves to be uninhibited journalists.
Connection
You might be asking how we can possibly be more connected, when we’re going to be together in a tight space for a prolonged amount of time. But yet aren’t we usually and we still don’t feel connected to one another? Connecting is different than just being or just “hanging out”. Connecting is an action word, it takes effort and requires that you make eye contact.
Yes, you’re about to have a lot of family time. So, be purposeful and intentional about it with one another. If it’s family time then make it feel like family time. Play a board game, have a conversation, read a book aloud. There’ll be plenty of time to also watch a movie, get into a Netflix series together and do other media-driven activities. Use at least some of this time to connect with each other.
Not sure how to do that? Start by downloading a list of conversation-starters. Play guessing games, or games like “Would you Rather?”. Break out the “vintage” board games like Chutes and Ladders, Payday, Life, Trouble, Sorry. Play is connection.
Now’s the time to take what you know of your life and of your family, and start taking charge in making it work for you. At the same time, it’s also a time where there’s a lot we don’t know. So use what you’ve got and what you want to layout your vision of home. But most importantly, be flexible and remind yourself that these are unprecedented times in our lives. There’s a big part of us needing to be able to “roll with it” that also means giving up total control over the outcome. So do what you can in the moments you can. And remind yourself that there is absolute light at the end of this tunnel.
