Thank you for taking the time to respond to my email two weeks ago and providing recommendations for future newsletter topics. To not much surprise, I would say ~80% of the responses were related to Coronavius anxiety & stress.
I don’t think many of us imagined that we would still be living in a quarantine, social-distanced state at this point in the year, but here we are.
So, let’s start with realistic expectations and perspective.
- Take your expectations for yourself and divide them by 3.
I know a lot of people out there are feeling bad because they don’t feel productive enough during quarantine, but I promise you everyone feels the EXACT same way. It’s okay to just chill out for a second. Your level of productivity right now probably is what it is — add unnecessary suffering to yourself with so much self-criticism?
- Do at least ONE thing every day that makes you happy.
When I was very sick during my cancer treatment, for a while I felt like there was no point in trying to experience happiness until after chemo was over. My chemo regimen was 3 years, though, and after about a year and a half I realized I didn’t want to feel miserable every single day if there was anything I could do about it. What I did was focus on finding ONE thing each day that could make me happy, even if it was small like going for a walk, watching a TV show I liked, or calling a friend.
- The bad times help you appreciate the good times.
We require contrast to be happy. Without the bad times, we wouldn’t know how good the good times really are. Take giving your friends a hug, for example. In 2019, I bet you didn’t think twice about greeting your friends with a good hug. Now put that exchange in perspective for the future. Won’t that first time you hug your friend again feel like the best hug in your entire life?
Now, if you’re up for a prompt: Write down the 3 things you may have taken for granted before coronavirus, but that you’re going to appreciate so much when this is over. Write them down on a post-it note and place it on your fridge. These are the reasons you’re persevering through these hard times; don’t lose sight of them.
The coronavirus module in my Life Teachings program is full of in-depth coping strategy videos and resources on how to manage stress during this time. I also just added 3 new videos too:
- My Quarantine Story (my quarantine started in October 2019, I’ll tell you why)
- Productivity During Quarantine
- Addiction During COVID
You can click here to read more about the program.
