Are you feeling a touch antsy? Fidgety? Do you have a strong desire to tear down your house and take up the life of a nomad, living every day differently? Maybe you’re not crazy. Maybe you’re just experiencing a serious case of lockdown fatigue, courtesy of COVID-19.
This has been an extremely trying time for everyone and if you’ve been feeling exhausted, cranky, and worried, then we’ve got a few ways to help you feel better.
Rein in the structure
Structure is the thing that helps you stay focused, it motivates you, and prevents you from doing everything at the last minute. Essentially, it helps you create a sense of stability and balance in your life. Which COVID fatigue endangers. So plan ahead. Think about how your days are structured and then cook up a feasible routine that fits in exercise, regular work breaks, family time, and sleep.
You’ll be surprised at how dealing with your admin, like getting an affordable car insurance policy in place, can help you get into a more structured, deal-with-life kind of mood.
Get outdoors
Being outdoors ups your serotonin levels, which is associated with boosting your mood and keeping you calm and focused. And it doesn’t matter what the weather is like, but we should point out that sunlight does provide a source of vitamin D, lowers high blood pressure, and even improves brain function.
So go get you some outside time.
You need to recharge
If you don’t take action and recharge, you’ll stay stuck in that tired and sluggish zone. Take time for yourself, like taking a bath, practicing pilates or meditation, reading, getting out into nature, or even watching funny movies. Here are a couple of ridiculously funny South African ads that will get you smiling and relaxing.
Stop and breathe through the difficulty
If you don’t give yourself the space to address your worries and concerns, you’ll find yourself spiralling out. You literally need to inhale and exhale during your anxious moments in order to get out of your head and into your body. This way, you can be present and process your feelings in a more constructive manner.
Exercise is medicine
Exercise helps you sleep, puts a little more ‘oomph’ in your step, and improves your health and wellbeing, especially during these difficult times, so make the most of it. Find a great indoor routine or better yet, download an app that prompts you to work inside and outside so that you can enjoy the best of both worlds.
Make sure you’re getting some good sleep
We’re meant to be getting roughly 7-9 hours of sleep nightly, but when you’re not in a good space it can seem elusive. To get a good night’s sleep, you’ll need to plan it.
What you want to do is remove lights from your sleep environment (like TVs and smartphones) consider doing something calming to wind down (like a warm bath or meditation) nix the caffeine and sugary foods before bedtime, and perhaps even think about changing out uncomfortable pillows and bedding. Top of Form
Change your perspective
Take a few deep breaths and bring yourself into the present, where it is stressful. Because it is. Living through this pandemic is incredibly nerve-wracking and it’s okay to be anxious right now. But before you allow these feelings to overwhelm you, do these 2 things.
Firstly, acknowledge your feelings and remind yourself that nothing lasts forever. You can’t do anything to change the outcome right now and worrying is just going to spin your mental health off for a loop.
Secondly, focus on living your best life under these circumstances. This means accomplishing daily tasks and chores, washing your hands, wearing your face mask when you’re out and about, and practicing good self-care.
Ultimately, we don’t know when things will go back to normal, so we’ve got to do our best to deal with what our new realities are. Speaking of ‘back to normal’, can we just say that it’s impossible to truly ever go back to anything that seems better than the now? No, really. You can’t go back to your last holiday, your honeymoon, or high school. You can’t even go back to yesterday. What you can do is think about how you want to live today and how you want to take that into tomorrow.
That’ll help you shift your perspective and hopefully help you climb out of that dark place.
Posted in partnership with King Price Insurance
