Surviving the Pandemic

BASIC SURVIVAL OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC

We ALL feel it.  The stress of uncertainty, and the dramatic change to our usual routines and habits, creating some level of Coronavirus Anxiety.  Depending on your nature and personality, you may be coping better or worse than others.  Nonetheless, we ALL feel it to some degree, and most of us to a large degree.  Surviving the uncertainly, stress, and anxiety is not complicated, yet it takes a concentrated effort and follow through.  Here are my suggestions for …..BASIC SURVIVAL OF THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC:

1. Routine, Routine, Routine: Develop and Maintain A Healthy Routine:
   1. Good Sleep Pattern…up routinely, and to bed routinely. It does not have to be rigid.  There can be some flexibility, but maintain a fairly consistent routine, especially through weekdays.
   2. Healthy Eating: Maintain a healthy diet with scheduled meals and some snacking.  If snacking is an issue, don’t have it in the home.
   3. Exercise: Workout/Exercise 5-7 times per week for at least 30 – 90 minutes.  This is a very good time to set some goals and get off to a great 1-2 month start on them.
   4. School: When doing e-learning, set a fairly firm schedule, and make it healthy.  Start school between 8-10am, after getting up, getting ready, and eating a healthy breakfast.  Study in a routine area where you can focus, and complete schoolwork with breaks in 2-5 hours.  School work should pretty much always be done by 3pm or so.
   5. Work: Similarly to school, set a fairly firm schedule.  Start between 7-9am, after getting ready and eating a healthy breakfast.  Work in a routine area that allows for focus an productivity to be maximized.  Work should be done between 4-8pm.  Try to resist working later as it typically will lead to later nights and poor sleep that will compound struggles the next day.

2. Balance, Balance, Balance: Be Very Intentional About Creating Balance:
   1. Alone Time vs. Social Time: It is okay to have significant time each day dedicated to being alone and with others you able to while maintaining healthy social distance.  Be sure to create a balance in this area.
   2. Screen vs. Non-Screen Time: Outside of work/school, limit screen time to a reasonable amount of time, particularly individual screen time that does not include a social component.  Also, do not dedicate too much screen time to the news and the virus updates.  Some is okay, but little updates each day are enough.
   3. Self-Care vs. Other-Care: Take care of yourself, creating healthy routines, but also stop to think about and do for others you are with or in your community.  Simple things like taking care of chores and doing unexpected ones for family members, as well as for neighbors, elderly, or other family outside of your home.
   4. Inside Time vs. Outside Time: Get out as much as you can ….walk, walk the dog, bike, hike, mow, prepare landscape for spring, projects for yard and home, take drives in the car, etc….
   5. Carry-Out vs. Home Cooking: It’s easy to do carry-out every day, and it is good to support those with jobs in that arena during this time, but a good mix of both carry-out and home cooking would be healthy, both nutritionally, but especially socially as well.  Prepare meals together, and actually eat together ….often.
   6. Re-Calibrate:  For many professionals, like those in the legal profession, this is a great opportunity to re-calibrate their lives, bringing back or creating for the first time, balance to their identity and self-esteem.  For many law firms, and other similar businesses, it is easy for those in the profession to center TOO MUCH of their lives, their identity, and their self-esteem around their work.  Now is a great time to force some balance into all three and re-calibrate, developing a healthier, more-balanced life, identity, and self-esteem.

3. Talk, Share, and Connect:
   1. Spend time talking to each other about what is going on in the world and in your day, and purposeful talk about other topics not related to the pandemic.
   2. Share about your thoughts and feelings related to the pandemic, and other topics of life and your day. If you discuss anxiety and fears related to the pandemic, try to dig deeper into what exactly you or others are most afraid of.  Share about it.
   3. Connect with everyone in your home every day…several times per day. Dust off the board games and playing cards and ….play.   Connect with others…. family, friends, and neighbors who need connection as well.  With those outside of your home, use in-person connection with social distancing rules, phone calls, texting, emails, snail mail, etc….

Simply focusing on these three areas will significantly decrease your stress and anxiety related to the Coronavirus Pandemic.