5 Tips for maintaining your wellbeing during self-isolation
Hello everyone!
How are you doing? I realise it has been quite a long while since I last posted here on my blog. I am so glad to be back. I feel the pull towards being more creative again and I just thought I would check in with you today to find out how you are!
I made a video blog post yesterday on youtube, in which I shared five things that might help you get through the coming days and weeks, during the Covid 19 virus outbreak, the pandemic that is sweeping across the world right now. I include the link to it here:
The rest of this blog post is basically the transcript from the video. I am sure many of us are trying to follow the guidance from our governments and from the health authorities and medical experts, as much as possible and this means there are several restrictions on our day to day life. I am sure many of us are all trying to do our best to self-isolate at home, perhaps you are even under quarantine.
Anyway, I thought I would offer five things to help you get through the coming days and weeks, while you are dealing with this at home. Hopefully they might prevent you from going a bit stir crazy, for some of us its too late for that because we already are but anyhow, here goes…
1) Don’t forget to breathe, people!
Breathe slowly and deeply when you have some quiet moments. Just be present in the moment. Breathe in (inhale) and exhale slowly. Be conscious of how your body feels. Be mindful and aware of your surroundings. Tune in, tune in to your thoughts. What are you thinking about right now? Can you release those thoughts.
How is your body feeling right now? Imagine breathing in the healing, loving light of the sun. Imagine, when you inhale, that you are taking in healing, loving, golden light, into your body and you are allowing it to flow around your body where it needs to go the most. Just let it flow freely and then on your exhale, exhale slowly and release anything that doesn’t serve you, any negative thoughts, any negative feelings, any troubles. Consciously let them go on your outbreath.
2) Try a daily practice.
Perhaps it is time to try a daily practice. There is something that I have used for years called the Daily Examen, which is attributed to Saint Ignatius Loyola a few hundred years ago but it probably exists in many different cultures and many different faith practices and belief systems and it is a very simple process.
You can do this when you get up in the morning or last thing at night before you go to bed. What it means really is to spend a few moments in quiet reflection and focus on what it is that you are most grateful for today in your life right now. Or to put it another way, what brings you energy or excitement or what brings you the most joy. So focus on that for a few moments and focus on that with gratitude, with thankfulness for what you are most grateful for.
Then the flip side to that is also focussing on what it is you are least grateful for, for today, and only for today. Alternatively, you can think of that as what drains your energy, what brings you least joy in your life, today, right now. Just dwell with that for a few moments but then be prepared to let that go. Over time you might even want to write this down every day – a few thoughts on what you are most grateful for, that brings you joy and energy and what you are least grateful for or what drains your energy.
In time you might notice a pattern and this is good guidance for our every day life because, hopefully, in time it will nudge you,if you follow your intuition towards what it is you want to do more of in your life and what it is you want to do less of in your life if possible and then take some incremental steps towards making that happen.
Move towards what gives you more joy and light and laughter and energy and perhaps move away consciously from what drains your energy or makes you feel sluggish or makes you feel sad.
3) Call a loved one.
It is very important right now, as everybody is practicing self-isolation if you can, unless you are an essential worker and you are having to go to work, to call a loved one on the phone, or Facetime or Whatsapp or Skype or Zoom or whatever. It could be your elderly relative, your grandmother, your grandad, your mum or your dad, your brother or your sister, your cousins, your best friend, your colleagues, who you miss seeing at work if you are all having to work from home.
Just give them a call, find out how they are, hear their voice, let them hear your voice. We have to practice social distancing at the moment but that means maintaining a physical distance not an emotional or mental or spiritual distance from someone.
So just remember those who might be housebound anyway. How are they doing? You know, have a chat. See if there is any way you can help your neighbour or your family member. If they are able to accept deliveries at home, perhaps you can do some shopping for them and get it sent to their house. The most important thing is maintaining some form of social contact right now to encourage one another. We are all in this together.
4) Get some exercise!
How about some exercise? Maybe you are climbing the walls in your flat or your house. Maybe you were taking walks but now the latest guidance perhaps is for people more to stay inside their houses. You can still do basic exercises at home. There are plenty of fitness apps on your smartphone that you can download or free applications or free videos on youtube, for example where there are fitness programmes for you to follow.
Anything from just simple stretching exercises to yoga and pilates to all sorts of boot camp fitness programmes, whatever you are in to . You don’t need any equipment you can just go online, sign up for free and do 15 minutes of exercise a day.
There are two which I can recommend, which I have used in the past. One is the Balanced Life Online which is a pilates programme and another one is called the Betty Rocker and that was a combination of different fitness techniques. You only need 15 minutes per day and to move your body is really good for you, it increases your energy and it can make you feel better and its fun. So move your body around the house, even while you are vacuuming, or sweeping, or cleaning or whatever, there are different ways, or working in the garden, that’s another way of keeping fit, if you have got a garden, then go out and potter about. It is good to move your physical body.
And last, but by no means least, linked to the Daily Examen…
5) Do something that brings you the most joy.
Do something that brings you the most joy in your life right now! That could be a book that you have been meaning to read for a long time and it is sitting there gathering dust on your shelf. Perhaps you like to paint and draw? Perhaps you like to write poetry or a blog post? Perhaps you like to be creative in the kitchen and you are looking at the contents in your cupboard and you are thinking wow, what shall I make out of that today or like I said, if you are a gardener and you like just being or pottering about outdoors then go and plant some seeds.
Do whatever it is today that brings you joy, that lifts your spirits. Creativity is very important right now, we are creators at heart and we need outlets for this. Many of us are probably pouring our creativity into our day to day work, so if that routine has changed, you still have that creativity within you so find a way of channelling that into something else if you can.
Anyhow, they are just five ideas to hopefully keep you going through these uncertain times. So stay well everyone, please do follow the guidance that you are given, let us all work together to overcome this crisis at the moment and hopefully this will bring us all closer together to each other, recognising our shared humanity.
Also let it bring us closer to nature, let us get back in touch with nature and our planet and do what we can to help each of us heal and heal the planet at this time.
Ok sending you much peace, love and light folks until next time!
God bless you. Bye bye,
Sarah xxx
PS. If you want to learn more about my intuitive healing practice go to:
The Intuitive Healing with Sarah page on this blog
or
Check out my facebook page Intuitive Healing with Sarah – Healer by Sea
P.P.S I am thinking of offering a range of different card readings and reiki healing by distance for free over a 30 day period beginning on 1st April 2020, let me know if you would be interested in this.
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Wayfaring Sarah 