Really quick, I wanted to tell everyone who is stuck at home feeling the misery of being tied to your electronics with only the lure of Facebook for an occasional escape.
Granted, the only difference with the COVID-19 situation is that you have the virtual schooling at home situation thrown into the mix. This is NOT easy.
But overall, here’s some help that, if you take the advice, it may greatly improve your mood and reduce anxiety.
You MUST take frequent breaks. Don’t stay chained to the laptop or whatever you’re using. Every half hour or so (or every time your computer starts “thinking”), get up and move around. Get up and pet the dog. Have a mini dance party with your kids. Stretch your muscles. If you have to use the potty, get some extra steps in and climb the stairs to the upstairs restroom.
Multi-task computer with non computer tasks. This is seriously how you work from home, get most of your to-do list checked off and not lose your mind. Stand up, throw in a load of laundry. Go back to PC and type a few sentences. Sweep the kitchen, put dishes away. Sit back down and send an email.
Rest and exercise your eyes… a LOT. Too much screen time will do terrible things to your eyes and vision. Make sure that you break away and use the gift of your sight. Focus on objects near and far. Close your eyes and cup your palms over them while doing some mindful breathing.
Get out and drive, even if you have no specific destination in mind. It’s good for your long distance vision. Do activities, like backyard sports, that engage your peripheral vision. Too much screen time affects that, too!
Start doing yoga. Yoga and stretching in general are extremely important for reversing the effects of too much computer use. Hunching at the keyboard is terrible for your posture. Poses like cobra, upward dog and camel pose reverse that.
Find a good yoga video and engage your core. Sitting at a computer greatly weakens the core, but it’s fixable. Screen time also affects our mood. Yoga, when done right, greatly improves it.
Go to the light. Your hormones and immune system need natural light, not LED light. Follow the sun… head outdoors for short breaks throughout your day. Bring your laptop outside on a sunny morning, this way you’re working but in a favorable natural environment.
Married and partnered people, enjoy each other physically. You have a great form of stress relief in each other. Be intimate every day, it’s natural and necessary. Most of your stress levels will go way down if you just take the extra time to shower and enjoy each other’s company.
Just fifteen minutes of privacy is all that’s needed to feel great and turn your mood around. A massage to end the busy day also eases the stress of being stuck at home indefinitely.
Be present for family and friends. Make an effort to have conversations where people ask questions and look at each other for more than a minute or two. Think a lot about what family members are saying. Pay attention to body language and engage in sustained eye contact.
Take content based conversations back into the real world. If you find funny one-liners on a website, don’t just forward. Memorize the jokes and share them with your kids. Have them do the same.
These are just few of the many ways to balance home, family and work life under one roof. I learned by trial and error and years of mistakes. But now you have my life lessons right in front of you. So use them, your life will improve and you’ll be so happy that you did!