Coping Strategies for Looking after yourself in these extraordinary times

Sleep – You might find your sleeping patterns are disturbed. Give this time to settle down and catch up with sleep during the day, in the short term

Slow down – You will have more time than you have ever had before. Take your time and enhance your experience of whatever you are doing

Breathe – In times of stress, we breathe higher up in our chest without realising it – breathe from your diaphragm

Hydrate – Keep drinking water every quarter of an hour, if you can remember

Move – Don’t sit in one place for too long, particularly at a computer. Move even if just to get that glass of water!

News – Only catch up with the news once a day, it can be stressful to continuously watch it and feed anxieties

Sport – Don’t use Sports channels either, there isn’t any sport, it is all about the C word

Social media – Reduce your time on social media and don’t believe all you read!

Connected – Stay virtually connected with your colleagues and friends throughout the day – you will need interaction. Set up WhatsApp Groups

Humour – There are creative jokes flying around, it is OK to laugh and smile

Exercise – Go for a walk (once a day), keeping spatial social distancing, or go into your garden, or balcony – get fresh air. Try an online fitness class.

Eating – Try not to overeat. When at home all day, its tempting to keep raiding the fridge or snack drawer

Hobbies – Try a new hobby, catch up on an old one, read a book, research future holidays – whatever floats your boat try it out. You will never have so much time to do things you have always wanted to except you will be in one place!

Virtual Events – You can still do things with your friends remotely including virtual quiz nights, book clubs. Use your creativity to make things happen and give you a break from this unreality

New online Opportunities – You can see London’s twelve famous museums via virtual tours. Sky have just launched 3 new channels -Nature/History and Documentaries. There seems to be something new every day – stay curious

Stay Calm – This is not an easy one, with families being brought together over what could be quite a long time. Try and give people space and count to ten before responding to happenings!

Whatever the future holds, I hope this helps. 

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