As the numbers of COVID cases rise and the winter approaches, staying home more often is probably in the cards for all of us, whether it is due to government-mandated lockdowns or simple social distancing good sense as cold and flu season combines with the pandemic to make close quarters a potential cesspool of disease. So how do you make sure that you’re staying healthy physically while also staying healthy mentally?
Get Outside
Make sure you’re fitting in some fresh air and outdoor time in whatever way is possible. If your surroundings and the weather allow you to take a quick (or long) walk every day, take advantage of it! Even a few minutes of fresh air and the sight of a leaf or two will make you feel better. If you don’t have anywhere you can walk, can you air out your house or apartment? Try throwing back your bed coverings and opening the bedroom window for fifteen minutes after you get up. It’ll freshen up your bed in between sheet changings as well as freshening up the air in your space. (Of course, this might not be ideal if you live somewhere with lots of air pollution.) If you are really out of options, try finding a good website, social media account, or magazine that has beautiful pictures of the outdoors and take a few minutes to look through some shots of landscapes or gardens every day.
Make a Schedule
I’m not suggesting you schedule out every minute of your day (unless that works for you, in which case, go ahead and enjoy being the most productive person in the room), but giving your days a little structure even if you’re spending them all at home will help you keep moving, even when you can’t actually go anywhere. Have a goal for when you’re going to get up in the morning and go to bed at night, and plan a couple of times a day to get stuff done. That might be doing your work-from-home tasks between ten and noon and two and four, or it could mean setting the morning aside to work on your blog, taking an hour out of every day to work toward learning a new skill, or putting in thirty minutes a day to make sure your house stays neat and clean. I wouldn’t get too extreme with trying to make your days look “normal” unless it is especially helpful to you; I see no benefit to making yourself get up at five in the morning as you normally would for a commute if you’re starting work in the next room at eight-thirty. When you’re trying to stay healthy, getting an extra hour or two of sleep is probably more beneficial than feeling like you’re hustling by getting up before dawn.
Get Some Exercise
When you barely leave your house, the temptation to let fitness go out the window is strong, unless (and sometimes even if) it’s something you genuinely love. There’s no need to work out for eight hours a day unless you want to (you deranged lunatic), but it is important to get in a little bit of movement and stretching. Exercising doesn’t require an expensive gym membership or fitness program subscription. If you get a mat and a set of light weights, you can look up easy exercises online to keep yourself going with something like yoga, light strength training, or aerobics. Just be sure to take it slow, and if anything hurts your joints, don’t do it!
Eat Good Food
This is an easier suggestion for me to follow, since I love to eat. Don’t let yourself fall into the pattern of eating ramen or frozen meals every day. There is nothing wrong with eating those sometimes – we all do it – but remember that you need a variety of foods to be healthy and to keep yourself interested in eating. You don’t have to learn to make a different gourmet meal for every day of the week. Just come up with a few things that aren’t difficult to make and that you like, and rotate them. Add to your repertoire as you go along. When you’re stuck by yourself is a perfect time to try new things, since no one will know if it doesn’t work out. Who knows, you may burst back onto the social scene as the best cook of your circle!
Socialize
Obviously, the point of isolating is to be by yourself. Don’t take this to extremes, though. Call and text your friends and family. If you’re allowed, make sure you have at least one friend that you can hang out with in person. Be safe about this; find someone who is being cautious and has a similar bubble as you so that the likelihood of spreading different sets of germs between you is low. You can go to each other’s houses for a drink or a cup of coffee, sit on opposite sides of the room, and feel fairly confident that you aren’t endangering each other. Just be sure to always be completely open about any contact you may have had with someone who’s sick, and reschedule if you think it’s possible one of you has been exposed to illness.
Beware of the News
It is important to be informed about what’s going on in the world, but I would argue it’s equally important to make sure you’re not obsessing or oversaturating yourself with bad news, doom-and-gloom, or conspiracy theories. Pick the method you would like to use for your news delivery, for example, a daily headline roundup, the nightly news broadcast on your local station, or your favorite newspaper, and stick with that. Pick a time to dedicate to filling yourself in, then put it away. You can always check it again if something remarkable is happening, but for the most part, keep it to a minimum. Anything that happens in the afternoon after your usual news-reading time will be there for you to read about tomorrow.
Do Something Fun
You’re going to be spending a lot of time at home, so come up with something you like doing and give yourself permission to set aside some time to indulge yourself. Make sure it’s something you really want to do though – don’t decide your fun thing is going to be learning advanced origami techniques if that’s something you feel like you should do rather than something you really want to do. Maybe you want to devote some time to reading trashy romance novels, putting together puzzles, or playing video games. Those are all great options! You don’t have to impress anyone with what you do with your free time – they never even have to know.
I hope these suggestions will help you get through the upcoming months. Keep in mind that there are no rules; when in doubt, do what feels best. Don’t stress out if you oversleep, skip your daily exercise, order pizza multiple times in one week, or play video games all afternoon. You can always try to get back on track tomorrow.
Stay safe and healthy and take care of yourself – things will get better soon!
For tips on staying healthy during the winter, check out this post!
