This COVID-19 crisis has radically changed our lives. Nearly a year ago, we had no idea our ‘world’ would be confined to our homes!

This crisis is a powerful reminder of how important freedom is – and how much we need human connection! 

Remember you are not alone. Because what is DIFFERENT here is that everyone is impacted! Your neighbour, mom, boss and friends as well as your counterparts around the world are all going through something similar.

So, it’s important to remember:

Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms – to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way. Viktor E. Frankl

Or add in a favourite inspirational quote of yours instead of the one above.

This is the challenge each of us must rise to! If we’re going to be stuck at home, we may as well make the most of it.

5 Things That Will Make Life Better In Isolation:

1) Create a Healthy, Supportive Routine

When we feel powerless or helpless (as so many of us do at the moment), one EXTREMELY easy thing to do is to create a routine or schedule.

While we’re all stuck in anxiously waiting at home, it’s easy to lose our sense of time. Days can begin to blend into each other. A routine can give us an anchor and greater sense of control over our lives. And if you have children, creating a routine is especially important to give them a sense of normality.

This routine or schedule can be as simple as:

• 7am – Wake-up
• 8am – Breakfast
• 10am – Exercise
• 11am – Talk to friends
• 12.00pm – Lunch
• 1-4pm – Learning or a home project
• 5pm – Make & Eat Dinner
• 7pm – Talk to close family
• 8pm – Reading, Journaling
• 10pm – Bed

Be sure to include food preparation, social time, exercise and outdoor time and some learning or creativity so you get some benefit from this challenging time.

It’s also important to recognize weekends because it’s too easy for weeks to blur together. So, make a looser schedule for your weekends. For example, you could include:

• Sleeping in/later bedtime
• Brunch
• “Treats”
• Movie night with popcorn
• A virtual happy hour with friends or colleagues
• A larger project, perhaps some art, craft, gardening or home redecoration.
• A Sunday visit with family

So, create a routine for a sense of control and mastery over your environment and life circumstances. Reclaim what power you can over your own life, because with all this uncertainty it’s important for you – and especially important for children – to have predictability.

Customise the example routines (weekday and weekend) for YOUR audience!

2) Build Your Physical Strength, Fitness Levels or Flexibility!

Building your physical strength is powerful and health-boosting! Not only is physical strength and flexibility life-affirming and good for our health, but feeling more physically powerful actually helps us feel more empowered and less helpless in life too!

So add some physical activity into your schedule – as little as 15 minutes daily. Maybe by the end of this you’ll be fitter or even be able to do 10 (or 100!) press-ups!

There are many options to boost your physical strength and health. Here are some ideas:

• Take up a yoga practice – excellent for strength-building, flexibility – and calm! There are lots of online options. Here is one with everything from 10 minutes for beginners to an advanced practice. Sarah Beth Yoga on YouTube has more (free) yoga videos than I can count
• Learn do a press-up or push-up. Then see if you can get to 10 (or more – depending on where you start)!
• There are so many online fitness classes on YouTube – for beginners, experts – with equipment and also with no equipment whatsoever.

Add your fitness and strength class ideas to the above including links to make it super-easy for people.

REMEMBER: BEING stronger = FEELING stronger and more in control! And building your PHYSICAL strength or fitness = REDUCED feelings of helplessness! Outer strength increases inner strength.

3) Learn with Non-Fiction Books:

Use this time at home to educate yourself with non-fiction books. There is so much to be gained – like self-confidence, negotiation skills, health (sleep, nutrition), how to have difficult conversations and much more.

What keeps you up at night? There’s probably a book about that! What do you wish you were better at? There’s probably a book about that too!

Here are some book ideas to get you thinking:

• Be more productive or creative with “The Now Habit” by Neil Fiore or “A Whack on the Side of the Head (How You Can Be More Creative)” by Roger Von Oech and “A Whole New Mind” by Daniel Pink.
• Think (or rethink?) how you live with books like “The Omnivore’s Dilemma” by Michael Pollan (also available in a young reader’s version), “Slow Food: Collected Thoughts on Taste, Tradition, and the Honest Pleasures” by Carlo Petrini, “Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America” by Barbara Ehrenreich, “Doughnut Economics” by Kate Raworth.
• Get personally inspired with “Dare to Lead: Brave Work. Tough Conversations. Whole Hearts” and “The Gifts of Imperfection” by Brene Brown, or “Man’s Search for Meaning” by Viktor E. Frankl.
• Up-skill yourself with “Difficult Conversations: How to Discuss What Matters Most” by Douglas Stone, Bruce Patton, Sheila Heen.
• Learn about the human mind with “Blink” by Malcolm Gladwell or “The Whole Brain Child” by Daniel J. Siegel MD and Tina Payne Bryson, PhD.
• Get healthier with “Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams” by Matthew Walker PhD.
• Be more confident and discover your strengths with “The Confidence Code: The Science and Art of Self-Assurance – What Women Should Know” by Katty Kay and Claire Shipman” or “Now, Discover Your Strengths (How to Develop Your Talents and Those of the People You Manage)” by Marcus Buckingham and Donald O. Clifton.
• Finally, read memoir! Choose someone you admire, get inspired and learn how other people think – and live their lives. “Divalution” by Deborah St.Hilaire is a good one to take notes in.
• Creativity counters boredom. so try “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron

Reading one book will expand your mind, reading several of these books is going to make you more interesting, help you learn new skills – and maybe even make you more employable too! We will be reading some of these in our book club as well. so, if you enjoy reading, check it out…pun intended.

Replace, reduce or add your book and topic ideas to the bulleted list above.

4) Explore your Life Vision:

Rather than watching endless news streams, you can choose to focus on a bigger picture – your future. What do you want from the rest of your life? What would you be disappointed you did NOT do? Where do you envision yourself in 10 years?

Having a clear vision of how you want your life to be is a powerful motivator. A vision helps us work towards our goals, take action and make change. Soon, we’ll all be super-busy again – and a vision might be just what you need stay focused!

Here are 5 questions to ponder or journal around to go deeper:

• What do you desire or yearn for in your life?
• How do you want to feel?
• What do you really, really want to be different in your life?
• What would have happened in 3 years time such that your life is spectacular and you feel magnificent about yourself?
• What’s your dream for this lifetime? Imagine you’re 90 years old and looking back over your life; what did you do that made you proud and happy?

TIP: Remember to think possibility not probability! Don’t limit yourself and your ideas because you don’t believe something is likely. Instead believe it’s possible – and even if you don’t get all the way there, you may get close – or even find something better along the way!

MAKE AN OFFER: And if you’d like some help with creating a vision for your life, I’m offering a free Life Visioning Session. Just email me at mybodymindspiritlive@gmail.com or message me on StrengthFromWithinTraining.com to set this up.

5) Be in the moment:

In THIS moment you are OK. You are safe. Take one day at a time. One hour or even one breath at a time if you need to.

This tip is about being super-present, not thinking ahead or remembering the past, but practicing BEING.

This is a PRACTICE – meaning you will have to do it over and over again – bringing yourself back to the NOW. Over time it gets easier, and it’s a great skill to have to take back to “normal” life.

So when you notice you’re worrying, feeling twitchy and want to pick up your device and find out what the “latest” is about the COVID situation, say to yourself, “It’s OK. In this moment, I am safe. In this moment I am OK.”  You can also add or say, “In this moment, my children/husband/family are safe.”

EXTRA TIP: Reduce or minimize how often you watch and read the news! And DON’T read or watch the news (or articles about COVID-19 or similar) just before bed!

There are so many more ways to keep depression and boredom away, allowing you to focus on health and happiness. Join me Tuesday, January 23rd at 2:00, in our private FB page, for more secrets of sanity and health during this trying time.

You are not alone. There is strength in numbers. We can do this. Be alone not lonely.

Thigs to talk about in the forum:

Is there anything else you’d like to say? Learnings, hopes, things you’ve noticed?

So, which of the above ideas resonated with you? The areas I am focusing on are __________  add what you’re doing and why as an example.

Believe you have the skills and power to tackle this situation and you will! Choose to make the best of a difficult situation and no matter what – you’ll find a way.

This current and strange COVID-19 situation will end. And when it does, you’ll be proud you made the effort to learn/change something.

Much Love,

Coach Deb

Founder/CEO