how to survive another lockdown

Inspire

keep yourself inspired. Make new music playlists, find at art that you love, listen to podcasts, watch livestreams of your favourite music artists, watch a documentary, educate yourself about something you don’t understand (climate change, equality, politics, immigration, veganism, a certain culture etc..), watch videos about things you’ve always wanted to do, read a book that interests you…

Then go and share the inspiration with your friends and family!

When we find ourselves inspired our body produces higher levels of serotonin and dopamine – which makes us happier!

This inspiration leads to learning and growth and creates meaning in our lives.

Find balance

Life can be filled with so many things, but often when we do too much of something and not enough of something else, we start to feel unstable, stressed, upset or drained. For example:

• working too hard and forgetting to have fun.
• relaxing too much and not making time for inspiration and growth.
• spending too much time focussing on your personal growth that you don’t make time for your friends and family.
• having too much fun and not making enough time for cleaning, shopping or doing your homework.

By making sure we make enough time to have fun and socialise as well as grow and relax between doing our normal day-to-day activities, we should feel balanced and alive!

Reach out to friends and family

If anything, I think lockdown has been the most powerful tool that has allowed us to reach out to, check up on and support each other in such an immense and inspiring way.

We are now all in a situation that is sticky for each and every one of us. It is an extremely strange, challenging and often upsetting time for us all. This weirdly unites us and has allowed us to often be more connected with people in ways that we never were before.

It is important to keep up the zoom quizzes and reunions, make regular calls with friends, spend quality time with our social bubble, ask people how they’re doing, talk about mental health, and be honest and open.

“A problem shared is a problem halved”

if you don’t have time to call somebody, why not send voicenotes?

Challenge yourself

Whether its doing something new everyday, learning how to do something that requires practice and patience, or doing something that you’ve always wanted to do, but have never had the time… challenging ourselves is something that will keep us focussed and allow us to grow. This then turns lockdown into a healthy space, which we are grateful for instead of resistant to.

some challenges…

• Cook a new meal everyday
• learn how to play an instrument or mix music
• join a virtual marathon which you can run/cycle/swim on your own (you still receive a medal!)
• raise money for charity
• find a new song every day that you love
• sell all the clothes you don’t really wear
• do something for your community such as litter picking on the beach
• read a book
• try making more vegetarian and vegan friendly meals to help the planet
• do an intentional act of kindness every day

• climb a mountain
• buy some paints or pencils to paint and draw with
• decorate your home
• learn how to do a new sport such as rollerskating
• do a different type of workout every day e.g box-fit, full-body, pilates, dance, hot yoga etc.
• give up something such as unhealthy snacks
• try and buy only what you need to reduce spending and waste and to save the planet
• Watch a sunset and a sunrise every week

Spend time away from your TV and phone

We can’t do the things we would normally do for fun, but that doesn’t mean that there’s nothing fun to do! It doesn’t mean that we must shut off from the world and become absorbed in TV shows, social media and online shopping to fill a hole. Look into the real world and live your authentic life. You’ll be surprised at the things you find to do when you leave your phone untouched and TV turned off.

Slow down your thoughts

While there is not much to do and we are staying in mostly the same place every day, it is easy to get swept up into a spiral of fast flowing thoughts. It is important to not get trapped in our minds and spiral into negativity.

By being in control of our thoughts we have more strength and power over our emotions and are more likely to choose happiness.

We can do this through:

• meditation or prayer
• writing down all the things we are grateful for
• practicing mindfulness by noticing our breath, doing a body scan and noticing our senses
• Listen to the Mindful Kind podcast by Rachael Kable
• practicing yoga or tai chi (there’s so many youtube videos that you can follow!)
• lighting incense and candles to create a peaceful aroma in the space around you
• simply giving yourself enough time to relax a take it easy- have a bath, take a mindful walk, spend time with people you love.

Have FUN

Having fun is so vital to our mental health and wellbeing as it helps to release the stress of our mundane, everyday activities. Doing fun things lifts our spirits up and connects us with the people we love.

So we aren’t able to socialise with our friends at the pub, dance away our worries with strangers, inspire ourselves around history and the arts in museums, unwind at the spa or eat a delicious meal at a restaurant.

But this gives us the opportunity to look outside the box and see how we can replicate these fun times, and hold onto the hope that these experiences will soon return.

Write out things that you want to do each day over lockdown rather than focussing on the things you feel you have to do!

Make a box of fun ideas that you and your social bubble can do and pick one out every day or so:

• Recreate the restaurant experience by making a three-course meal together, light candles, put on some relaxed music, drink your favourite drink that you would normally order and make a decaf coffee for after your meal.
  The best bit about this is that you can have a lot of fun making the food and creating the same atmosphere but IT WILL BE SO MUCH CHEAPER!! Happy dayysss!
  OR do a ‘Come Dine with Me’ in your house, where a different person does a 3 course meal each day of the week.

Some vegan recipes to try…

https://veganuary.com/recipes/?gclid=CjwKCAiAxKv_BRBdEiwAyd40NyUD97bSnFg4Ue9ac-8Mn6wlcLOlyeSOpavziI25CgOQI-SjuitWdhoC_nIQAvD_BwE

• Get out into nature and enjoy the world’s natural beauty. The energy from the elements whether its wind, rain, sunshine or simply fresh air will fuel your soul with happiness. Find new places to walk, cycle, run or skate that you’ve never seen before. Go on a longer walk than you usually would. Climb a hill. Take a camera and catch the natural beauty of the land and animals that you see.

• Recreate a club experience by making a collaborative playlist on Spotify and have a Zoom call with your mates with a couple of drinking games and a boogie- no matter how stupid you look to your neighbours dancing on your ones!
  – Put some soft lighting on – fairy lights, lamps, star lights etc.
  – put on your favourite live music event on the TV on mute and pretend you’re there.

• If you’re missing the gym or sports classes, do a workout from home! If you don’t have enough space, head to your local park and follow a video on youtube! If this still isn’t working for you, try a new sport!

• Create a spa experience by giving someone a massage with oils or moisturiser, lighting candles, putting on a face, hair and foot mask, and soaking your feet in some warm water.

Ideas for a spa day… https://zestforlifeblog.co.uk/2020/06/10/how-to-have-a-spa-day-from-the-comfort-of-your-home/

Stay healthy

• Drink enough water

• Do a minimum of 30 minutes of moderate exercise every day (which can be spread out through-out the day)

• Make sure you’re getting enough
  sleep
  
  how to get a good night’s sleep… https://zestforlifeblog.co.uk/2020/09/13/start-your-day-happy-part-1/

• Reduce sitting time (stand up on your breaks from work or the ad breaks if you’re watching TV)

• Take vitamins to make sure you’re getting enough energy

• Eat food that makes you feel good!

• Eat at least 5 fruits and vegetables a day

Hold onto hope but find joy in every day

The future is pretty uncertain at the moment which is something some of us find quite difficult. Know that there will be and end to this and life will return to some sort of normality soon. Talk to your friends about all the things you would like to do when this is over and make a list so you can tick off everything when we’re finally free!

Why not make a vision board of all your dreams of the future by printing off pictures of things you want to do?

HOWEVER do not waste your energy by pouring all your hopes and dreams into the future- live your life NOW and make it the best it can be

There’s an app called 1SE (1 second every day) that puts together snippets of each day into one video. It’s such an amazing way to capture all the small moments of joy. This really reminds me to be present in every moment enjoy the simple act of living.

By noticing the smaller moments of joy in every day, the day becomes filled with happiness, even if there is no big reason to be happy.