7 Self-care Tips To Help You Survive Quarantine

Let’s be honest. Being cooped up at home in the face of the coronavirus pandemic, has left little time, or even reason, to stick to routines that were in life before this all began. These are unprecedented times. With stay-home orders in place across the country and most of us working from home, normal life seems like some distant past. But even as millions struggle to make through the pandemic, most of us are rediscovering what it means to practice self-care in the comfort of our houses.

Keeping this in mind, how about we utilize all this time, far removed from the hassles of day-to-day lives, to build up your inner health and re-invent yourself with holistic healing. Instead of giving into anxiety and stress, allow yourself to relax without an agenda. According to the experts, here’s how you should exercise self-care during quarantine to protect your physical and mental well-being.

Use Cooking As An Outlet

If doesn’t matter if you have the culinary éclat of Gordon Ramsay or you can’t even boil water on your own, now is a great time to give those recipe books that have been collecting dust in some nook and cranny of your house, an honest attempt. Cooking not only keeps your hands busy but is also physically nurturing, serves as a functional creative outlet, and is a great alternative to staying glued to the screens all day.

Even better, turn cooking into a family activity and get your little ones involved. After all, cooking is an essential life skill and now is a great time to dial down on healthy habits, including consuming whole-some, home-cooked meals. Even if you can’t get your hands on your usual grocery items, venture off routine and add some new products, vegetables and fruits into your rotation.”

Create A Self-Soothing Toolbox

A self-soothing toolbox is a collection of habits, activities, and ideas that help to calm your nerves when you are feeling overwhelmed and weighed under. Since all of us are different, there is no one-formula-fits-all. You have to find your unique soothing activities and techniques, according to what soothes us. For instance, when some people are stressed, they like to keep their hands busy with activities like drawing, painting, cooking, knitting, or even baking.

Such activities will engage your attention and focus, leaving you less likely to revert to sulking. Plus, they’re the perfect balance of productivity and creativity, which will make you feel better. Some people get hooked on engaging podcasts or gripping audio books to occupy themselves with, when they are feeling despair.

Want to relax? Listen to something your find soothing, such as your favorite music or a fascinating book. While some people like to immerse in hot water when they are feeling tensed to relieve stress and relax their muscles. A relaxing bath, possibly infused with essential oils, surrounded by scented candles, gives you some time to be completely still and enjoy your surroundings.

Start A Gratitude Journal

When you are cooped up at home, it is easier said than done to keep your mind at ease. If the isolation is taking a toll on your mental health, retire to your happy place for a few minutes every day to fill in your gratitude journal. When everything seems to be spiraling down, maintaining a positive mindset is crucial.

Starting a gratitude journal will help you focus on the good things in life, and it will encourage positive thoughts instead of negative ones. Each day set aside some time to reflect on your life and jot down 10 things that you are grateful for in your notebook. I call it the gratitude journal. This focus on positivity is an easy act of self-care to boost your mental health.

Learn A New Skill

Once the novelty of work from home wears off, it can start to feel monotonous and dreary. Why not take a break from work and use the time to pick up a new skill that you have always been meaning to but never had the time. Whether it’s as simple as painting or knitting or as in-depth as speaking another language, passionately focusing on a project will help boost your confidence and leave you feeling fulfilled.

Even better, you can learn new skills which will fuel your career development and make you a more valuable employee. If you’re happiest when you’re productive like me, teaching yourself a new skill is how you can ensure your personal growth in quarantine.

You don’t even have to step out or splurge a fortune to learn something new. Use affordable platforms like Coursera and Skillshare to watch short, concise video lessons from industry experts, to help you sharpen your skillset.

Do A Digital Detox

In the absence of any physical contact, we tend to fill in the gap via social media channels or replace time spent in socialization with long- binge-watching sessions. But in addition to setting boundaries on the time spent on social media or how much exposure you are getting from the news, it is sometimes important to break free from technology altogether as the best act of self-care.

Don’t heed social media or Netflix notifications, turn off the TV, and pick up a good book, a paint brush, or a pen and paper instead. It’s important to take a break every once in a while, so you can relax and remind yourself of what truly matters.

I once breezed through a weeklong digital detox and I came out a better person. Use your screen free time to spend time with your family, learn new skills, get in touch with old friends, create art, exercise, whip up scrumptious meals, pick up hobbies you never had the time for, or take social-distancing-appropriate walks.

Engage your kids in fun art-time, get them to make cards for your quarantine elders, or even find ways to help others going through a tough time.

Find Time To Meditate

Keeping your physical space in order becomes all the more important for your physical and mental wellbeing when in quarantine. Unfortunately, we occupy ourselves to the neck with meticulously cleaning, decluttering, rearranging, and organizing our homes that we forget to reassess and tend to our mental spaces as well.

Practicing mindful meditation everyday will help you boost morale, power up productivity, gain clarity and reduce stress. Ideally, you should dedicate five minutes each morning to meditation. If you don’t know much about meditation, there are apps you can download, such as Calm, Headspace, and Aura. By starting your day this way, you will inevitably breeze through your days.

Learn Techniques To Help You Sleep

Living under quarantine greatly disrupts your sleeping patterns, in addition to your day-to-day structure. Catching up on snooze is absolutely essential in maintaining your physical and mental health, and experts suggest setting strict schedules for getting ready for bed at a reasonable hour, turning off the streaming services, turning your room into a cozy haven and putting down devices.

However, if at the end of the day, you find it too difficult to fall asleep, you can employ time-tested sleeping methods, such as the 4-7-8 breathing technique. You can even use objects such as scented blankets, aromatherapy machines, and weighted blankets to let you sleep faster and ease your brain in these difficult times.