With the corona (covid-19) virus taking the wind out of many people’s sails and many needing to stay at home to self-isolate, I thought it might be worth sharing some insights on how to stay at home, have a life and be productive.
Update: It’s December 2022 as I update this blog post, which I first wrote in March 2020 – that’s 33 months ago! But I still find this article relevant, because the way we live life, think of our work (the whole hybrid, working remotely / work-from-home & work-from-office combination), and even think of sanitation, mental health, value person-to-person contact and the importance of clinic trials has had a shift. Covid-19 has taught us that we can adapt – but it also reaffirms that we can make change work.
Personally, it’s brought along with it an improved understanding and the growth of telemedicine too!
I still, 33 months on find this blog post of mine insightful and relevant… I hope it helps you too if you’ve just stumbled across it.
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Anyone with a chronic condition who finds themselves mostly home-bound will be able to able to give you these tips as most with chronic conditions understand the value of creating a balanced life.
I’m sure many with chronic conditions would love to step out more often and be able to socialise, get some fresh air and see what the world is upto, but for many of us, this can be quite a challenge, therefore it’s necessary for us to create organised, healthy and productive environments for ourselves. (psst – you’ll hear the word ‘productive’ a lot from me today!)
Before I begin with my list, I wish to start by saying…
The most important thing in all this is – in all the time you get (until the virus isn’t contained or even later on once you’ve adapted to a new routine) – you may believe that you have a lot of time to do what you wish to but with all the everyday essentials mixed in with some work-from-home, laziness and worry, time will fly by, which is why I suggest that you don’t miss this opportunity to inculcate good habits and re-evaluate where you stand in life – what you would like to change and what you think is working for you.
1. Improving or Creating New Habits
We all have habits, some good and not so good.
This is the time when you could do the following to help you get organised and create those good habits.
So first, let’s begin with the external…
Home Care
In the everyday chaos of getting ready, getting to work and socialising, many forget to organise their home.
You can begin small by:
- Cleaning and reorganising each drawer of each cupboard.
See what needs to go into charity, what needs to be thrown out and what you can keep.
Don’t go all crazy and try to do this all in one day – target one wardrobe, or one section of the wardrobe each day.
Do the same with your kitchen, your book shelf, your shoes.
A good clean out, makes you feel nice and light and literally reduces the load of all the unnecessary stuff we cling on to – sometimes, we don’t even know they exist!
Maybe follow the KonMari method in case you’re a Marie Kondo fan.
- Water your plants – either bring in some fresh ones (if possible), or take care of the plants you have.
There’s a certain responsibility that comes with having a plant.
I recently started a vertical garden for growing herbs and I didn’t really realise the love, care and attention they need, especially when you’re learning all about it as you go along.
It’s quite an enriching experience to grow your own food.
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Here’s a thread of tweets I started on growing herbs and vegetables, in case you’re interested…
Managing food with a chronic condition is a challenge.
So I’ve thought to try my hand at growing herbs and then hopefully some vegetables…
To share this journey, I’m starting a thread – I’ll keep adding to it over the coming weeks…
I begin with coriander…#growyourfood pic.twitter.com/JrUgaaaLWJ
— Shruti Chopra (@itstarot) January 25, 2020
Self-Care
This again may seem like an obvious one, but we need this reminder…
So let’s begin with what we see – our body.
1. Body-Care
As someone who has been on strong medication over the last many years, skin and hair is bound to get damaged, which is why I’ve found that by taking care of it, it helps to improve the quality of my skin and hair.
In general, whether you’re healthy or not, we should try taking some time out to care for ourselves.
Here’s all that you can do:
- exfoliate and massage the face and body
- face/body pack
- scalp massage with hair oil or just your finger tips
- don’t forget to give your hands and feet extra care by exfoliating, massaging and applying nourishing creams
Whether it’s exfoliation, applying a pack or giving yourself a massage, they all help to improve blood circulation, reduce stiffness and make you feel relaxed and rejuvenated – plus your body will thank you for it 🙂 …give it a go and let me know if you feel the difference.
Read Here For:
- My Acne Skincare Remedies – Endometriosis & Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome
- All My Skincare & Haircare Recipes
Here’s a playlist of my skincare videos:
And here’s my favourite skin brightening DIY recipe:
2. Exercise
Cleaning up the house is a great form of exercise, but even then, I’ll suggest exercising through other forms at home. The options are plentiful – from yoga, to pilates, tai-chi or turning on an exercise video – maybe even zumba to get a good cardio workout going.
The idea is to get fit and stay fit.
Plus, exercising helps to build immunity and also releases happy hormones, endorphins.
Relevant Inspirational Read:
3. Diet
This is such an essential.
Whether you have a chronic condition or have a strong immune system, everybody should do whatever is possible to eat well. It’s also a good time to educate yourself on what changes you can make to improve your health and quite honestly, we can all do a lot to improve where we are today with respect to our eating habits.
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Yes, during self-isolation, it’s going to be tough to suddenly change your diet and get the ingredients you need, but if you are able to shop for groceries, then try to be more aware of what you’re picking up.
Packaged and processed foods will do nothing to improve your immune system and may harm you further, so give it a thought and even once this phase ends look to make more informed choices about what you’re eating, again, your body will thank you for it. 🙂
Read Here For:
Mental Health
I understand that everyone speaks about the importance of mental health but you know what, if living in isolation goes on for a while then it can get tougher if you haven’t been working on your mental health already.
I say, why get to a stage where you need to work on it desperately?! What don’t we begin on it right away…
So let’s begin with some basic steps:
- Re-Evaluate – see point 2 for more details (scroll down for this)
- Spend Quiet Time – no tv, no music, no reading – no sound, just quiet time. Silence can be daunting but when you’re silent, you’ll get to hear thoughts and ideas which you usually wouldn’t. It’s a great way to connect with yourself.
- Close your eyes and focus on your breathing. Take slow, calming breaths, this will eventually lead you to the next point…
Relevant Read:
1. Meditation
This is all about, deep breathing and not entertaining your thoughts.
Become an observer.
Don’t engage with your thoughts.
Over practice and time, you will be able to reduce your thoughts and hopefully be free of them.
2. Gratitude Journal
Everyday, write down five things you’re grateful for that particular day. To help you understand what I mean, please check this post out that I wrote about why and how to introduce this habit.
I can say this though, this habit helps us realise and respect what we have – it takes our ‘feeling peaceful’ quotient quite a few notches up.
Read Here For:
3. Online Course
I love this one.
If you’ve been putting off learning something recreational like an instrument, or believe that you could benefit from growing your professional expertise then this is a great time to do so.
It’s productive, fun and enriches your knowledge base allowing you to remain focussed on something that could help you in the future. Plus, you can work through such courses at your own pace keeping you flexible to get other things done too.
4. Consuming Content
It could be a book lying on your shelf that’s been calling out to you for a while waiting to be read, it could be an audio book, a podcast or even YouTube videos.
Content that could range from being, informative, humorous or just anything that’s of your interest – if you’ve been putting it off then just go for it.
Plus it’s a great way to expose yourself to new content – content we usually wouldn’t have time for.
5. Get Creative
Whether it’s drawing, painting, writing poetry, knitting… anything that unleashes the creative side to you.
Being creative is relaxing – a form of therapy.
2. Re-Evaluate
Here’s a really important one.
Our lives are filled with routines and responsibilities and in all this we forget to, or are too tired to introspect and re-evaluate our lives.
Getting the time to pause, no matter what the circumstances are is quite a rare opportunity.
So where do you begin?
Here are some questions that could get you started:
- How do you feel about where you are in life – work, finances, relationships, health?
- Are you where you want to be in all four areas mentioned above? What can you do to improve these aspects of life? For example, you may want to rework your finances – understand your expenses and investments. The idea is to understand the actions you can take to create an improved path for yourself.
- If you’ve been thinking about starting a business, or taking your current business forward – create an action plan for this and even start off on things you can. The idea is to challenge your thinking, your path, get you inspired and not add to your stresses.
For example, if you’ve always wanted to share your expertise and want to train people, or to start a blog, a podcast, a YouTube channel or even write a book, then look to give it some attention.
Introspection cannot be a one-off thing.
Turn this into a habit so that you’re always checking yourself, re-working your life and staying on-track. It’s a sensible way to keep your mental health intact rather than be overwhelmed by life.
3. Reach Out
In our everyday grind, we tend to forget to reach out and check up on each other, whether it’s a friend, relative, neighbour, or even the people we live with.
When was the last time we really spoke to one another and caught up?
- I know I shouldn’t really have to list these modes of communication but here they are – you can catch up over email, calls and chats rather than just liking photos on social media.
- If you’re at home, then maybe go back to some old and regular games rather than staring at your phone or computer screen. How about board games at home with family – the old ludo, snakes & ladders or even carrom! It’s such a great way to engage and share some quality time together.
4. Music – Song – Dance
There is something incredible about music, it has the ability to release stresses, make you joyful and soothe the soul, which is why I would suggest:
- Discovering new music – ask people around you what their current favourites are and you may just be introduced to something that you may love. O’ and if you discover something new, please do share it with me too! (Thank you)
- Listen to old music that you haven’t revisited in so long and sing out loud with it!
- If you’ve played an instrument, bring it out and play! Re-introduce yourself to it.
- If you love singing, then get those vocal chords going.
- And finally, get the body moving and dance! Get some music on, whatever genre of music you love and dance to it.
It’s tough for us to incorporate everything mentioned here but through these suggestions, what I’m really trying to get at is that it’s time to catch up with yourself, see whether you’re heading in a purposeful direction in life and be kind to yourself.
It’s time to make changes that create good habits – habits that are healthy and enriching.
I hope these habits go beyond this period of self-isolation – do try to continue them even once normal life resumes.
Good luck.
O! and if you have some suggestions to add, I’d love to hear from you. The comments section is open for you to share all that you wish to.
If you wish to follow me on YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest or Facebook then I’ve linked them – would love to be connected with you.
Take care and thank you for reading 🙂
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Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. I am a patient and have created this platform to share my experiences. This is all purely informative and in no way am I providing medical advice. Please consult a medical professional.
Really thoughtful list that is very helpful. One thing I’ve been doing during our social distancing is using YouTube to learn how to play a baritone ukulele that my uncle just gave me:)
O’ nice! Would love to know how you get on with learning the ukelele!