10 Things I Have Done To Not Go Clinically Insane During Lockdown

Well my friends, it is May 12, 2020 and the lockdown is still in place where I live in Canada. That means that we are still required to stay at home unless absolutely necessary - which is more than fair.

I'm coming to some new realizations as I approach week 9 (holy crow...Week 9!?) about people around me and collective consciousness as a whole.

Every. Single. Person. Is. Struggling. With something.

No matter who you talk to, the pandemic has changed them in some way – at this point, I think it's safe to say that some re-learning of our friends will be necessary when we all get the chance to truly connect again.

This article is about some activities and self-improvement processes that I've been trying to put in place during my time at home. I took a good, hard look at myself a few weeks back, and made the conscious decision to change the story to my favor and work through some of my own struggles around social isolation and loneliness. This does not mean that I have magically “fixed” myself by any means, but I have successfully managed to restore a bit of balance and I'm now finding myself able to work with the things that are giving me the most stress instead of letting them fully affect me.

What I’d like to remind everyone of is that this system does not, should not, and can not work for everyone – my hope is that we can all find a system that works for us, that brings us joy, and that allows us to feel even just a little less lonely.

For the past two weeks, I have attempted to go for a walk every single day. I am so grateful for the luxury to be able to walk around my neighbourhood and be in nature. Being outside has always been really enjoyable to me, and typically where I find the most peace within myself.

I've literally created a process around going for these walks - I'll take my time in making a bomb playlist or finding a great podcast, go for the walk with headphones on, then returning home and taking a shower or freshening up.

It's become a nifty routine that knocks a lot of “self-care” to-do’s off my list, while giving me a bit more of a 'routine'.

This one took a WHILE for me to accomplish. At the beginning of social isolation, I was staying up until 5am, sleeping until 3pm, and going about my day. I was depressed, anxious and scared, and having this sleep schedule allowed me to sleep most of the day away, making the dys feel ‘shorter.'

I immediately threw this right out the window when I decided to better myself and get myself back to being healthy. This was literally the first thing to go. I now have a “wind-down” routine that begins at 8pm and allows me to fall asleep properly by midnight, waking (and getting OUT of bed) the next day by 9am.

Let me break that down. At 8pm, I change the lighting in my room, and light a candle if I’m so inclined. I’ll put on a podcast or documentary that I will pay attention to, on a topic that I'm interested in learning something about. The KEY here (for me) is to put something on that I can't "fall into," like a television series or picking up a really good book. This way, I found I'm easily controlling how much time I'm spending on something that’s actually enriching my life.

I’ll have bedtime tea (anything based in Chamomile that's caffeine-free) around 10pm, and do some journaling.

By 11pm, I’m ready to start evening meditations and by midnight, I’m snug in bed, calm and serene.

A practice that I’ve managed to pick up during my self-improvement work has been to practice visualization. The purpose of these exercises, for me, is to fully envision my future life. It calms alot of the anxiety I have around this pandemic, assures me that things will get back to normal at some point, and my life will play out how I will it to.

I’ve been doing this in my own style, and although there are plenty of YouTube “guided visualization exercises,” I found that I was perfectly successful at asking myself the questions and guiding myself through the process.

I watched a documentary called The Secret, (2006) on Netflix a few weeks ago, and it influenced me enough to put visualization exercises into my daily life. I’ve been spending a ton of time making affirmative statements about what I would like my future to look like, and I'm finding it to be really motivating and powerful.

Meditation has saved my mental state. Truly, it has. I find myself craving meditation, and going to meditate has become a tool to create personal peace. Here I can be quiet, with only myself, and actively working through all of the problems that are causing me stress, as well as some barriers that have hindered my success in the past. I learned a lot about meditation by watching documentaries, how-to videos on YouTube, and (honestly) falling into a Wikipedia hole. I found it inspiring, and I knew that I would be able to greatly help myself if I challenged myself to meditate for a total of an HOUR every day.

The results are astounding. I am more at peace. I am more in control of my emotions. I am able to truly think about situations and find words that better explain what I am trying to say. I am more aware of what I’m putting into my body and how it affects me.

Friendly reminder that you can meditate by sitting in a bean bag chair, or lying down in bed!

Counting to 10 doesn’t work for everybody, let's be real here.

I have started to retreat to a place in my home where I can be alone with my thoughts when I have feelings of anxiousness or irritation. I like to be somewhere where I can control the energy of the room and do an activity that I find comforting, like listening to a specific song with headphones on, listening to calming beats, journaling, or becoming immersed in a new video.

This is where my documentary-watching is coming in handy. I’ve learned SO much about so many topics in the past two weeks, and socially isolating is a great opportunity for you to study up and research some topics that you’ve always been interested in, but never had time to pursue.

...you could always read some articles by your fellow Vocal writers to learn new things too!

Learning is a great way to keep our minds active and present. Absorbing new information can lead us to have a confidence in ourselves and our own abilities – and we get to come out of quarantine with some pretty neat facts to share with our friends!

This one sounds rudimentary, but I had problems keeping up hygiene routines at the beginning of the pandemic, so I figured I'd include this one too.

I created a “self-care” routine surrounding a face mask that I love that has to be done three times a week, which happens to be how many times I wash my hair. I want clear skin, and since I’m not wearing makeup during this pandemic, what better time to purify my pores!

I have self-mandated that I can only do the face mask after stepping out of the shower since my pores are warm and open. Therefore, I have to shower to face mask, and I have to face mask to shower.

That worked BEAUTIFULLY for me. Especially since the face mask was $60.

I got this idea from Claudia Sulewski, a YouTuber who I highly recommend checking out. This video has a tip of setting a 20-minute timer and doing the chore that you need to get done (skip to 2:15 for it). Set a timer for a menial 20 minutes, and clean for those 20 minutes. You’d be surprised how well this works! I’ve never vacuumed so much! ...thank you Claudia. God bless.

I didn’t realize how much my environment really affects my mood until I was stuck LIVING in an environment that I created 24/7. I like things clean. I like to be clean. I like my floors to be clean. I want my makeup organized.

This worked for me. No questions asked.

To be honest here, this one has been difficult since the weather where I live hasn’t really co-operated lately. I bundle up and do my walks if necessary, but I really REALLY hate the cold. Whenever the weather is at least a little warmer, I’m out on the back deck and reading my book, calling a friend, or writing in a journal.

The sun is a big influence to my mood. My saddest days happen when it’s gray and lifeless outside. The moment the sky is blue and the sun is shining, I try to be outside by any means necessary.

This was a HUGE one for me. At the beginning it felt like I was FORCING myself to do absolutely everything. And that obviously did not work, at ALL.

I was eating when I wasn’t hungry, watching shows I wasn’t really interested in “just because I’ve watched this many episodes and need to see how it ends.” I was baking banana bread just because there were bananas even though I didn’t want to bake, I was drinking too much coffee because I thought it was the key to happiness (or something)…

I started listening to my body and amazing things happened. I only do things that I believe will bring me joy or that I will find some sort of happiness in. I am eating foods I have at home that my body craves, I am baking when my stomach is craving the nutrition from that particular food, I am watching what my mind is interested in following….and the list goes on.

It’s absolutely amazing how much better I felt when I stopped FORCING myself to be happy, and just let my body tell me what would make me the happiest.

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I sincerely hope this helped even one person feel a little more positive about what they're capable of handling during their time at home with themselves. All the best to all of you - say safe and stay home!

XX LC