COVID-19 – A Mission in Distancing

How to Cope with Social Distancing Without Feeling Isolated

When discussion around the Coronavirus started, I took it lightly. I thought people were being ridiculous. I had two trips planned, one for business and one for spring break with my daughter. I had only every cancelled one trip in my life and it was because I was deathly ill with strep throat. As my work trip approached, I saw several companies cancelling non-essential travel. Ours did as well but not until I returned from my business trip. Traveling was pretty painless. There were those that were wearing the surgical mask and wiping down seats. I guess they got these supplies early before everything sold out. I was fortunate enough to have some wipes on hand so I also wiped down my armrests, seat belt buckles, headrest, and tray table. Going, the mood was a little lighter than returning. By the time I jumped off the shuttle to get my ride home, I knew I would be cancelling my second trip with my daughter for spring break.

Now as everything is closing down and we are being encouraged to practice social distancing, it might be hard to navigate a situation we, as westerners, particularly here in the states, are not accustom to living. “Busy” is our mantra. We are always on the go, eating out, going to social gatherings, and spending more time working than we spend at home. No wonder so many people are buying up all the toilet paper. They have no idea how much they will need when they are actually confined to home for long periods of time.

Rather than being relieved at the opportunity to pause and slow down, we panic, with good reason. We are faced with unpredictable times and with all the media coverage of what is going on with other countries, we may fear we could be completely shut down, cut off, or confined for an undefined period of time. In addition, if we do not keep ourselves occupied, if we continue to follow all the negative news, we could find ourselves suffering from the side effects of isolation, including loneliness, anxiety, depression, increased blood pressure and lower immune systems.

It is important to be realistically positive. The reason I say realistically, is that we don’t want to believe we are bulletproof and continue to go about daily life, ignoring what is going on during this down time. So maybe you are bulletproof but those around you may not be so please think of others. Think of others when you decide to go into public spaces and think of others when you stock up for what’s to come. We want to protect those that are most vulnerable and we can only do that with mass cooperation.

So what do we do while we are waiting out the COVID-19 storm? See my suggestions below.

5 Ways to Stay Realistically Positive While Social Distancing

Video Chatting

Certainly Facetime or Skype is not the same as face to face interaction. It does remind us though that we are still connected to people. I will be the first to say get off your electronics and connect IRL. In these times, the benefit of connecting through electronics is a blessing. Everyone else is in the same boat and it makes us feel so much less alone to see our loved ones even if it is through the screen of our phones or computers.

Read that book or binge watch that show you’ve been putting off for when you had free time

Take a little bit of time to do those things you don’t normally do for fear of feeling like you are not in “accomplish mode” every single second. This is the downtime you’ve been secretly longing for, enjoy it! Catch up on your reading and/or viewing. It will take your mind off what is going on in the world and bring you a little bit of entertainment. My suggestion is to stay close to lighthearted and triumphant themes.

Remember to Exercise

Even if we have to stay away from the gym, we still have options when it comes to exercising. You can certainly take a walk, just remember to keep distance between you and anyone else who might be out getting some fresh air themselves. The forecast here calls for rain over the next 10 days. You’d think it was Seattle! While I could lay around and get unfit, I will be seeking out online options to stay fit and healthy. It is the perfect way to stay in shape and get the endorphins flowing to keep your mood positive

Give your home some love

• Home Improvement – I really have been planning to paint my kitchen. Now with some down time on my hands, it is a perfect time to get it done. Hopefully, Amazon delivers paint!
• Gardening – My garden can always use a little love. I saw some great containers for planting vegetable on Amazon that I am going to ordering so I can better prepare in the future for staples like potatoes.
• Deep Clean and Organizing – Did you look at your cabinets when the the time to stock up came and think you were prepared only to realize many things were expired? Seems like a good time to pull all of those old staples out of the cabinets and deep clean everything.

Remember to be mindful

We are in stressful, unpredictable times. Do I believe we are all in danger of falling ill and meeting our demise? No. I really don’t. I do know that we have, at least temporarily parted from our busy hectic lives that has been a huge distraction. Even with all that distraction, we still felt anxiety and stress. We are now forced to slow down and have more time to think and watch our monkey-mind go bananas. More than ever we need to find ways to silence our mind and focus so we can better cope with the situation at hand. We don’t have to go anywhere and need very little to practice mindfulness or yoga. Here are a couple of links to get you started.

• For those that are new to meditating, here is a beginners guide to meditation to get you started – Journey to Mindfulness – Meditation 101
• Long before COVID-19 these yogis have been offering online classes that I love.
  • Yoga with Adriene
  • Journey Junkie
  • Boho Beautiful
• Since gyms are now closed, many yoga studios are offering online classes. This is a good way to continue to support our small businesses that are really taking a hit right now. Grab a mat, move your body, and calm your mind right in the comfort of your own home. Yoga pants optional!
  • Move to Meditate from Spiral Path Yoga

At this point, it is not clear how long we will be experiencing this change of lifestyle. Until further notice, it is the new-normal. The best we can do is embrace it. Doing that will help us through the journey. Stay strong, stay smart, and stay safe. Even though we are social distancing, we will get through this together.

We would love to hear how you are getting through your period of social distancing. Please share in comments!