How to take care of your health during lockdown

How to take care of your health during lockdown

This is not your typical “blabla exercise and eat well” blog post that is supposed to help you deal with the international crisis but ends up making you feel like a failure and a shit. I’m trying to come up with practical, easy ideas to follow - or not - to help you, but also me, cope with what is happening. Because feeling guilty is never the path to feeling better.

• Move your body

You do NOT need to become a yogi or come out of this with an incredibly strong core. You need to come out of this alive - and moving will help. Instead of beating yourself up because you have not had the time, energy or mental space to follow the “one workout a day with Whoever to have toned abs”, just MOVE. This is totally doable with kids too, and will help them release some of the tension. Put some music on - if you live in a flat and want it to be loud, put headphones on - and just SHAKE YOUR BOOTY. The amount of stress you will release just by physically shaking your body during a few minutes will have tremendous effect.

• Make a drink

Breathe, go to the kitchen and make yourself a drink mindfully. Listen to the kettle as it boils, hear the liquid splash in your glass - be PRESENT with the making of your drink. And when you take your first sips, be aware of how cold or hot it is, what flavour is hitting your taste buds, how it makes you feel.

• Drink. Drink. Drink

We generally don’t drink enough - and it looks like we drink even less now that we are on lockdown. Make sure you get enough water throughout the day - it is essential. To make sure you’re getting enough without having to actively track it, use a bottle / fill as many glasses in the morning as you want to drink in the day / use a jug. Easy to get the little ones involved too.

• Write, paint, draw, embroider - be creative

Try to you set intention to create a little bit often. It will help with focusing your mind on one task - providing it with rest from the stress and every day juggles. It can take any form, and is a perfect activity with kids and adults - it will also help them release stress and learn how to cope with it in a healthy way.

There is no right or wrong with this one - or to be honest with any of those. What you create does NOT have to be pretty, or serve any purpose. You do NOT have to learn a new skill. It requires NO skill, and no particular tools. You can take normal paper, shred it, and collage it in an interesting way on another piece of paper. You can take a book you have an cut out words you like. You can take a pen and colour a full page. You have all the resources you need to create things.

• Be kind and compassionate

To yourself and others.

Fuck the guilt. Fuck instagram and all those slim, white and able bodies showing yoga poses every day and teaching themselves how to weave. Great for them - you might not have the capacity to. It does not matter. You don’t have to come out of this with a new skill; a body that is more acceptable to society; a different mindset.

You need to ensure you and people around you survive this. That is already a big task - but it is the only one. By being kinder and more compassionate with yourself, you will feel less pressure to answer all those capitalistic performance injunctions. And by doing that - you will have an effect on those around you, who will in turn be kinder and more compassionate towards themselves. That is even more important in little ones who are building their selves.

Whenever you feel that you’re comparing yourself to someone else, or you feel guilty about doing or not doing something - shake off that feeling. There is no space for guilt in our lives. There is only space for kindness, empathy and compassion.

• Look up to the future

In realistic terms. What do you want to take from this? What will you appreciate more when it is all over? What plans can you make now that you can look forward to?

What I want to come out of this:

-making more time for me, my boyfriend, my family and my friends. Working less. Planning my visits to my family ahead;

-my friends and I have skyped three times a week to do a mini workout together. It’s not really about the work out - it’s about the routine and about having something to look forward to every few days. I want to keep this going - again, not necessarily the work out bit, but definitely the hanging out together. And for it to be planned. A lot of my friends still live in Paris, or France anyway, so I don’t get to see them as often as I’d like to, so talking to them regularly feels incredible;

-I want to be convinced that I am resilient enough to get through this and to get through life.

• Sleep

Sleep helps so much and is often a way for your body to cope with anxiety. I personally don’t believe one second with the “keep a sleep routine” bullshit that is going around - take this time to listen to your body. It is not meant to sleep from 10pm to 7am, then work blablabla. Your body - and your mind is your body - knows when it needs to sleep. Listen to it. Listen to you. Your sensations and feelings are not separate from your thoughts and your mind. Reconnect them.

• Bury your face in the fur of an animal who lives with you - or I guess a kid’s hair could do, too

The physical sensations - smell and touch - will help ground you. On top of it - they’re generally people we love, so extra points for cuddling them.

• Do something to make another person smile

There’s nothing as empowering as helping someone else. This can be a gift, a postcard, a text, a stupid GIF, some money so they’re not worried about what food to eat, an easy recipe that made you think of them. Just making someone aware you thought of them will make them feel important. It can big - it can be small. It can be a picture of a flower, a quote, telling them not to forget to drink. Checking up on them.

• Breathe and feel the fresh air

You don’t need to have a garden and you don’t need to go out. Open a window, put your head out, close your eyes and breathe. Fresh air and natural light are incredible for your mood and anxiety management. If you have a garden or while you go on your authorised walk / outing, make sure you look up to the sky, and breathe deeply. Focus on how it feels, what you hear, what you smell.

• Let go of the guilt

It has never helped anyone. Breathe deeply. You’re doing what you can do - and that’s okay.

Images are artworks from the fabulous Mellow Doodles - who sells prints, colouring books, planners, and all fabulousness.