I have so many thoughts on practicality during this time that I want to share with you. But I also want to share some important mindset components that I think are critical to successfully navigating this downtime.
There's a few ways to look at the state of the world right now. The first is to surround yourself with fear, allow the news to overwhelm your immune system with negativity, allowing cortisol to pump through your blood weakening your immune system.
The second is recognizing that now, more than ever, is an opportunity to BE THE YOU, YOU WANT TO BE.
As a psychotherapist, for years, I have heard people say they wish they had more downtime to do things they love, to tackle projects -like photo album organization - and take up new hobbies, read those books they've wanted to read. There is no better time than now to start living and creating the life you want for yourself, to connect with your dreams.
All that being said, endless days without structure will get away from us quickly, and organization is critical to the success of this lockdown.
Let's Set Intention (Journal)
Many of us are balancing the responsibilities we had before, with added responsibilities of home schooling children, keeping a house clean 24-7, etc. So it's important to be clear with the goals of what you would like to accomplish over the next month.
1. What's one project at home you've been wanting to finish?
2. What's one book you've wanted to read?
3. What's one hobby that you've wanted to take up?
4. What's one important thing on your to-do list that needs to get done?
5. Ask, what is most important to me during this time (think, connection with my kids, spiritual growth, improving my health, etc.)
6. Feel free to add a couple of other items here that fit your lifestyle/goals
Let's Prepare Your House
Take stock on the spaces in your home. A cluttered home is a cluttered mind, and we are trying to create an atmosphere conducive to productivity. Where is a space you can clean and work from? Where is a space you can use exclusively for downtime, where there aren't distractions? If you live in a small apartment, you can still do this, perhaps the dining table is the work space, perhaps a corner in a bedroom is down space. I offer more on this in the BE YOU FIND HAPPY starter kit.
1. Take at least an hour over the next day or two and CLEAN your space. Organize the room you plan to work/grow from, and do a general cleaning of the house. Ask family members to help keep their personal spaces clean.
2. Make your home a spa space for a period of time each day. Do this by having an area you can light some candles, and put on some peaceful native flute music in the morning or late in the evening.
3. Use this peaceful space to fill out a daily planner/journal. I like this one, but you can use a simple piece of paper to get started.
Let's Schedule
It's important to keep the week as normal as possible, meaning set an alarm weekdays to wake up and get going with your day, get dressed (albeit more comfortably) than you normally would. Allow weekends to be your traditional sleep-in days, etc. Keep this in mind when scheduling your month and weekdays.
1. Look at the month, fill in any required things you need to do during the month.
2. Fill in any major things you would like to accomplish (realistically) in one month in the side notes.
3. Calendar the week, give yourself 1 hour for downtime (prayer, meditation, reading)
4. Add to the week 1 hour to work on a to-do item
5. Add to the week 1 hour to work on a fun project/learn a hobby
6. Add 20 minutes - 3x per week of exercise (think walks, working in the yard, yoga, hula hooping)
7. Add to the weekend 1 hour to work on a house project
8. Look back at what's most important to you, how can you pencil in time for that daily? If it's time with your kids schedule 20 minutes of game time, if it's spiritual growth, pencil in time daily for prayer/meditation