Looking after your health and wellbeing during a lockdown

We will survive this!

When you can’t leave the parameters of your house or garden, can only see friends and family via a screen on your phone or computer and, we don’t know how long we’re going to have to do this for, it’s understandable that we’re going to start feeling a bit caged and tense. It’s more important than ever that we look after our health and wellbeing to make sure we come out the other side thriving.

Maintain a schedule.

A lot of people are having to balance working from home and homeschooling the children alongside the usual day to day home activities. During a time like this it can be quite a tense period. Try to establish and maintain some kind of structure to your family’s day so everyone knows what they are doing and when.

Sit down with the whole family and make a plan for the week.
Try to get up and ready the same time you usually would and stick to the same sleeping schedule.
If you are working from home keep to the same hours you would normally work or, make sure adjusted hours are scheduled and communicated to your family and co-workers.
Set times for exercise or practice some mindfulness, to do the cleaning and to have a wind-down period.

Keep in touch with family and friends.

It’s important to maintain contact with those close to you, for your own wellbeing as well as theirs. We’re fortuitous that we have so many online platforms available for video chats. We’ve been using:

Zoom - Free for a 40 minute chat with up to 100 people at any one time
WhatsApp - gives you the opportunity to connect with others on your mobile. Make sure you’re on the wifi or have plenty of data so you don’t get hit with a huge bill!
FaceTime - available for iPhone, Mac and iPad users
Houseparty - offers video chat with the added bonus of being able to play games, quizzes and music.

Of course not all people have access to the internet, particularly the elderly. Make sure you schedule time into your week to pick up the phone to call friends and relatives who are not online, to ensure they don’t feel completely isolated.

Take time for exercise and activities for the mind.

Whilst we should most definitely stay at home, fresh air is extremely important. Take the opportunity to go outside once a day. If you are able, go for a walk, a run, a bike ride or simply sit somewhere secluded and soak in that vitamin D.

There are plenty of home-workout videos available online and many have opened their platforms, offering free access.

Practice some mindfulness or take some time out to continue a hobby such as knitting, crafting or pottering in the garden.

Switch off from the news and social media.

When you’re working from home, finding resources for the kids, communicating with friends and family on video chat, it can be rather difficult to switch off. Find moments in your day when you’re not on your phone or computer and the TV and radio is turned off. Allow the time to blank out any negativity in the news and media so you can make space for YOU.

It’s a tough time for us all but, we WILL get through this!

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(Photo credits: nicollazzi xiong and Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels)