Self Care in the Time of COVID 19 Part I

Hope is that glimmer that allows us to look forward to the next day, to our upcoming lunch with girlfriends, to vacation, to a break from the kids for a night when they have a sleepover away from home. Hope gives us energy to get us through now by focusing on some upcoming future. People who are depressed often lose hope, lose their ability to look for the light ahead, lose their energy and just feel so tired. If you have not experienced some form of exhaustion during this period, consider yourself fortunate but from what I've experienced myself and heard from friends, we aren't doing a whole lot, but we are tired. Besides being tired from juggling additional duties at home with kids or trying to figure out how to cover rent, some of this feeling of pure tiredness is that loss of hopeful feelings. We know this will pass but we do not know when and how things will look when it does, so we don’t know when or where to place our hope right now.

Strangely, when this all began and I was fortunate to transition to working from home, I felt ENERGIZED. I am an introvert, so I assumed this burst of energy was due to getting more time to myself. Introverts often love people and they also get drained by constant human-ing interaction. I thought, wow – what a difference not having to drop kids off at school, getting to work on time and assisting my coworkers throughout the days makes for me! Perhaps there is some element of truth to this, but I found that the charge I experienced initially disappeared after a couple of weeks. I can now see that I was in crisis mode. I was taking control of things that I could because many things feel out of our control now. So once the get-up-and-go of crisis mode passed, I was back to my normal self and started to feel that loss and grief that so many others around me were feeling. At that point, I found myself falling into old habits of eating comfort food and spending way too much time on my phone, basically trying to tune out.

Fortunately, I recognized after a couple of days that these old patterns were not going to help me through this situation. So, here is what I did: I decided to actively care for myself. I texted my sister and friends to let them know I was going to make a change to eat healthier again and start moving more. I was holding myself accountable by declaring my intentions aloud. I went back to my daily goal of walking frequently to achieve 10,000 steps a day. It helps me maintain some sanity, getting up every hour from my kitchen table, aka work center, to go outside. Sometimes I walk to the end of the road and back, other times around the block. I take my kids with me, I take the dog with me, I leave everyone at home, I go out to hear the birds, I walk and listen to music; I mix it up but I walk. When I take a walk outside, I feel present and I stop wondering when this crisis will pass. Moving our bodies right now is important. Keeping our body in check, helps keep our mind in check. It helps me put the focus on something I can achieve right now, a mini hope for my future of walking 10,000 steps a day.

This guest submission will be presented in parts by our guest blogger Michele B. Please look forward to more nuggets to help you navigate this big wonderful life!