How I've been coping whilst Shielding

Hello Everyone;

How are you all doing? I hope you are keeping well and safe!

I thought in this blog I would give you a little more insight of my recent few weeks and what I've been doing whilst i've been shielding from Covid-19.

At the end of February I received a letter from NHS England informing me that I am at risk of catching Covid due to my Skin condition and my Diabetes. I got on the phone to NHS England because I thought it was a scam or that I had recieved this by accident but I hadnt, the letter was meant for me. NHS England had informed me that they had done more research and they had found that people with Diabetes are at a higher risk. This got me thinking about the amount of months that I had been putting myself at risk whilst I worked through the whole thing.

I then phoned my new employer and explained the whole situation and they have been amazing with the whole thing, my new employer was the one that mentioned that I should follow the instructions of NHS England and Shield, My new employer wanted to make sure that I was kept safe, which I appreciated. I was actually meant to start a the new job at the end of Feb/ beginning of March, but that now has to be put on hold until the end of shielding which is meant to end on 31st March.

Since I am at home all of the time I am finding it hard keeping my Mental Health stable. This is because I have no stability, I have no order as I have nothing to do. Thankfully after the first week of lazing around and not doing anything I have gotten myself out of that and made sure that I am doing a few things per day to keep my mind active and making sure that I am keeping myself busy to ensure that I do not slip back into not doing anything. These things could include:

- Cleaning/ Deep Cleaning

- Baking

- Knitting

- Puzzles

- Cooking

- Earning a little £ by doing Surveys

There have been many days where I have gotten out of bed and went to do a certain task that I had set for that day and not done it. I never realised that not working work 2 week is draining, which to me doesn't make any sense. I don't feel myself, my body clock is wrong, I've never felt lost being at home all of the time, being indoors and not being able to do the normal things i used to do.

Not being able to go to work and make a living, not being able to communicate with others face to face is something i've always done and not being able to do that on a day to day basis is hard for me at the moment. It is going to be a struggle getting back into a work routine again but I cannot wait. I cannot wait to work those long days again, I actually cannot want to come home from work and complain about my feet hurting and just feeling normal. Only 2 more weeks to go! I can do this!

I have gotten into a routine of making sure I am awake by a certain time each day, ensuring that I eat in the mornings, which is something that I haven't always done. I make sure I complete one task in the morning/ early afternoon and then complete another late afternoon/ evening. This has helped me manage my mental health because it means that my mind is always stimulated and not overthinking about things that i don't need to be overthinking about. I make sure I know what I am doing for the next day so I have a week logs of what I am doing each day and I have also picked out what I eat for dinner eat day for a whole week.

Being able to keep track of what I am doing each day is proving good, this is because if I miss something one day I can ensure that I either change it to another day so I do an extra task or ensure that It is done at the end of the week on a Sunday, which is normally my rest day. I make sure to give myself at least one day a week where I am not doing any tasks and don't set a time to get up. This is being Sundays are normally my days off from work, so ensuring that I keep that in my routine is always a good idea because this means that when I finally go back to work I will be able to stay in routine.

Can any of you recommend any more activities that I can do at home?

I hope you are all keeping safe.

- Lauren