Self-Care During a Pandemic... Wait, What's That Again??
You know when you first have a baby, and everyone says things like, "The days are long but the years go by fast!" and other irritating, um, insightful comments like that? In some ways, parenting during this pandemic feels very similar. On one hand, my (Katie's) kids have already eaten all of the snacks and done every single thing on the to-do list by 8:47 a.m., leaving me to wonder how we are ever going to make it through the day! On the other hand, it's already well into April... excuse me, what? How is time able to go so fast and yet so slow at the same time? For all of us, things are just crazy right now.
Check in time
So... we want to check in with you! Tell us, how are you doing? Let me just say that you are all on our minds these days. Truly, we just want to know how we can serve you best. As we Skyped for our team meeting last week, our originally planned blog post topics seemed a little bit trivial when we started thinking about everything going on in the world. So we shifted, and decided to write some suggestions for self-care during this time.
To be honest, we almost didn't write this blog post... not because self-care isn't important (trust us mama, it is!!) but because we all feel that this is an area we can grow in, so we are by no means the experts. When we write these tips, we are all trying to stay accountable, too... we are all in this together!
Our Favorite Self-Care Strategies
1. Find comfort in your routines.
With all that is changing in the world, it's tempting to give up all of our routines and watch Netflix until midnight. However, those routines can actually bring comfort. Find a few small routines and lean into them. For example, making your bed each day, drinking a cup of coffee on the patio, or putting on lotion before bed can all be small, simple ways to maintain a routine.
2. Give yourself ALL the grace when the routines don't happen!
I (Lori) can tell you that my routines over the past few weeks have definitely been off. I have been waking up later, staying up later, and having a hard time sticking to any schedule. There is a part of me that feels guilty when I give my kids the iPad so I can get an extra 30 minutes of sleep in the morning. But there is also a part of me that is trying to enjoy this time of sleeping in while I have it. Try not to be hard on yourself and find joy in some of those irregularities.
3. Limit negative thought spirals.
I don’t know about you, but these days it is really easy to get into negative thought spirals. When you look at the news, it can feed our already anxious thoughts of the future. What if our kids don’t go back to school by the fall? What if I get sick? Will I have a job next month? When you start to recognize your thoughts spiraling, try bring yourself back to the present. And this leads us to our next strategy…
4. Practice mindfulness and/or meditation:
Once you recognize your negative thought spiral, try to take a break to refocus your thoughts to the present. We love mindfulness strategies to help with this. Anxiety is caused by anticipating something bad in the future. If we keep our minds focused on the present, we can limit these feelings and thoughts. We love apps like Headspace or Calm to help ourselves become grounded. The more we practice this, the easier it can be to make those negative thoughts just background noise to our everyday life.
5. Move your body.
You guys, I (Lori) love working out. And not just any working out, I love Orange Theory. When I froze my account almost a month ago, it was a sad day. It was definitely one of my favorite methods of self-care. It was fun, a nice break in my day, and made me feel good. Over the past few weeks, I have been doing home workouts. However, with two little girls with me all day, it is almost impossible to get in more than 10 minutes without an interruption. Regardless though, I know it is one of the primary ways I feel better and I try to fit in a little something most days. And now my kids love working out with me, so it has become a fun routine for all of us!
6. Stay connected to friends and family.
With all of the chaos of homeschooling, telecommuting, and maintaining some type of organization within the house, we are all stretched pretty thin. It's easy to think that we don't have time to connect with others right now, when all of these urgent priorities are right in front of us. We have found a lot of encouragement in connecting with others. Fun fact: since TCC started in April 2019, we have been doing weekly Skype dates to work on our business. During last week's meeting, we actually got very little work done - we realized that we needed to have community and connection, and the evening was spent "catching up." While it wasn't super productive, it felt awesome. After a long week of parenting and working so hard, we could just relax with friends.
7. Limit media exposure.
This is one we are all still working on. Was anyone else hitting refresh on the “Worldometer” website, watching the numbers of COVID-19 cases steadily increase day by day and hour by hour? Seriously, every time we go to read a news article, we are bombarded with fearful headlines and worst case scenarios. Next time you find yourself checking news, check your feelings and your body. Are you feeling anxious? Can you feel that anxiety in your body? If so, that is a good sign to stop and take a step back. One recommendation we saw recently, was to limit yourself to checking the news a few times a day (maybe 30 minutes) and then stop.
8. Know your triggers and avoid them.
As we just discussed, news consumption is a definite trigger for us and a lot of other people. For some, alcohol can trigger a cycle of unhealthy ways of coping with stress. Maybe talking with certain family members who make you feel guilty about social distancing only adds to your negative feelings of isolation. For some of us, friends who want to talk about worst case scenarios just add fuel to our already anxious thoughts. Whatever your triggers are, recognize them and try to limit them. You have enough on your plate right now!
9. Figure out what "fills your bucket" at home.
Before COVID-19, I (Katie) knew exactly what made me feel better after a stressful day: wandering around Target, writing a blog post at my favorite coffee shop, wine night with my girlfriends, the splash pad with my kids... sadly, all of those things are on hold right now. Even in this time, we still need to find things that help us connect to ourselves. Maybe for you, that's doing a Zoom happy hour with friends after bedtime, or taking a walk in the cool morning air. Don't let this time go by without finding some ways to fill yourself up, even when you can't really leave the house.
10. Be productive... or not! It's amazing how much mental and physical energy goes into being on lockdown, especially if you have children. Maybe you have the energy to change out all of the hardware in your kitchen, or clean out your home office... and maybe you don't. Either way, do what works for you. If you are keeping yourself and your family safe, that is the most important (maybe the only important) thing.
We are here for you!
We are truly so thankful for this community! We have an amazing group of parents and professionals who give 1000% to children every single day. We know that home schooling in this crisis has been a huge stressor for many of us, and we are offering daily tips and inspiration for parents through Instagram and Facebook - If you aren't following social media, make sure to hop over there and give us a follow! We are all in this together.
