Overcoming Stress - part III

Okay, one more avoiding COVID-19/Coronavirus Stress blog!!

http://www.sfu.ca/olc/blog/my-ssp/mental-health-wellness-tips-quarantine

This was shared with me by my friend KB (the younger).  It is from Eileen Feliciano | NYS Psychologist.

I am picking and choosing some items to mention (but, do go and look at her whole (long) list.

-Stick to a routine.  Get up about the same time, go to bed about the same time, but do have variety in your schedule as well.

-Dress up.  Yes, I’ve been in shorts and t-shirt tops (or the last couple of cooler days in jeans and long-sleeved tops).  I like this suggestion from the article:

“Get showered and dressed in comfortable clothes, wash your face, brush your teeth.  Take the time to do a bath or a facial.  Put on some bright colors.  It is amazing how our dress can impact our mood.”  I have worn some hot pink and bright colors - I do need to do more!!!

-Get out and move - at least thirty minutes.  If you want to avoid contact with others, try 30 minutes in the morning.  Three days ago it was a nice, warm, central-Texas day and I walked the two miles to my HEB grocery store.  (and of course, two miles back).

-Reach out to others - call, text, email, whatever - say “hi” to your friends!!!

-Stay hydrated and eat well.  I do eat fairly well.  I do miss a little on the hydration side - and I maybe need to set an alarm to remind myself to take a drink!!!

- Spend time with children.  If you have kids at home (like my first-grade twins or kindergarten triplets), they don’t really understand what is going on.  For us, it is a crazy “pandemic” and for them, it is - well - almost an ordinary day.  For the kids in school, this is “Spring Break - extended for a month (or longer).

-But expect some behavioral problems with children.  They don’t understand what is going on.  Being inside and not seeing friends, not going to school (or preschool or even not going to the playground) is a hard routine to adjust to.  Love them, comfort them.  Be soothing to them!!

-Lower expectations cut down on media.  There are some things that just aren’t going to happen that might happen in a spring break or vacation time.  Trips to the park just might be few and limited.  Do some sick kid or person sneeze on the hand railing on the slide? Carry some wipes.  

-Thank people, thank the helpers.  If you will, everyone at your grocery store is a target for the coronavirus.  They are there to help you get your necessities.  If you have symptoms, use the call-in, delivery option - or have a healthy person go for you!!!  Some are working long hours - be sure you go out of your way to say “I really appreciate that HEB is open” (or whatever store).

-Find a longer-term project.  Get out that 1,000 piece puzzle, set up the card table and make it a family project.  (Okay, I did a 300 piece puzzle with my friend AP).

-The article suggests doing left-and-right repetitive motions - like knitting, crocheting, and even running, hopping, doing the jump rope - can help our brains.

-Find expression and go for it!!!  I’ve been writing - and coloring and creating some meals.  My apartment complex had a challenge last week - to put a different sign in your window every day - star, heart, teddy bear, smiley face and rainbow.  

- This is TEMPORARY.  This is NOT a preview of the rest of your life (or at least the experts don’t think so).  Although the end date is not known, it will END.  

-Learn from this experience.  The article ends with this comment:

“This whole crisis can seem sad, senseless, and at times, avoidable.  When psychologists work with trauma, a key feature to helping someone work through said trauma is to help them find their agency, the potential positive outcomes they can effect, the meaning and construction that can come out of destruction.  What can each of us learn here, in big and small ways, from this crisis?  What needs to change in ourselves, our homes, our communities, our nation, and our world?”

*****

Look at the article - there were things I skipped.  Learn and grow - this is just a strange new chapter in our lives.  In ten years, we can be laughing around the water cooler at work saying “And, how did you cope during the great pandemic of 2020?”

Hugs!!!

Karen