Most days, my alarm goes off at 6 am. While I should ease into the day, I have a bad habit of setting off to the races from there—even during a quarantine! I want to do yoga and then take my daughter for a walk outside for an hour and then do reading drills with her and then eat a healthy lunch and then clean my entire house and write more blog posts and do laundry and give myself a facial and read two books for my two virtual books clubs...ack!
Since we're all homebound during the current global health crisis, we (allegedly) have more time on your hands, so now’s a perfect time to learn to knit / start a business/ remodel the basement...right?
That’s a lot to ask of yourself even in normal times. We are living through a pandemic, which is stressful and taxing on our mental health. If there was ever a time to let go, it’s now. So go easy on yourself. Resist the urge to make your to-do list too long, even if you do have a bunch of things to figure out, like your schedule of daily Zoom calls with family. The government can’t even decide when to open up business and schools again because of this ever changing coronavirus. Why should you be expected to map out your days to a "t" living under quarantine?
I find when my anxiety is at its peak, it’s often triggered by me feeling like I haven’t reached my fullest potential because I didn’t hit some particular goal. But once I let the goals go and come back to just enjoying where I am at the moment, I find he anxiety eases up.
Here’s one tip I have to manageyour days now: in your journal or diary or whatever you use to track your things, write down only 3 things you want to do in a day. Make one of those things a fun and easy task. Even if it’s just to shower and comb your hair. That’s all you should aim for in the day. Three things. One of them should help you feel good.
Then sit down. Do yoga. Or not. Get dressed. Or stay in your pajamas. Do whatever is going to make you happy. That's the only goal you need for today, tomorrow, and the rest of your days.