I’ve learned a lot about myself during this lockdown.
Today I would like to share some of the habits I’m planning on keeping up after this ends, and ones that I’ll be ditching for good.
Let’s jump in, shall we?
Habits to keep:
Efficient grocery shopping and meal planning.
I don’t know about you, but I learned that I went to the grocery store a lot more often than I needed to. And I was NOT efficient when I was in there.
Having to limit the number of trips to the market means you have to make sure you know what you’re going to buy before you get in there. Which means you have to know what meals you’re going to make!
Meal planning was never something I was into (I mean, I liked the idea of it, but never all of the work and planning required). However, this shift in lifestyle has made it necessary to plan meals in advance.
And I must say, I appreciate not having to go to the store more than once a week. It saves me time, energy and a lot of decision-making power.
So even though meal planning can feel like a lot more work than it’s worth, clearly it’s a big time saver!
Video calling friends and family
Why have I never thought of doing this before?? It’s such a good way to stay in touch with those distant relatives, but also with mom friends who can’t/don’t feel like leaving the house on a Friday night.
It seems crazy that I never took advantage of this technology before.
So moving forward, I plan on keeping up with the video chats to help stay better connected with distant loved ones, and when I just don’t feel like leaving the house. 🙂
Exercising regularly
I have been loving taking part in the Pilates on Demand Live classes each night and on Saturday mornings. I didn’t realize how big of an impact having regular exercise was for my mental and physical health during these uncertain times.
I actually think I’ve been a lot healthier in lockdown than I normally am (minus the drinking :|) because I’ve been able to exercise much more regularly and eat more homemade meals.
I hope to keep up my nightly routine of doing a POD class at 7:30pm long after this is over.
Shopping locally and supporting local businesses
I’ve always been an advocate of shopping locally, but since this has all happened I’ve been trying even harder to make my purchases locally.
Shopping locally not only helps support the economy, but it goes a long way to help the people and families behind the businesses.
I know it might be easier to shop on Amazon or go to big supermarkets, but that little extra effort makes a world of a difference to small business owners.
Habits to ditch
Now that I’ve shared some of the positive habits I’ve developed throughout COIVID-19, it’s time to go through some of the ones I’d like to stop doing asap:
No work boundaries
This has been an extremely challenging time for parents working from home. And it’s made it even more challenging when we are able to (and sometimes expected to) work all hours of the day.
But working 24/7 doesn’t benefit anyone. Your quality of work goes down and you’re less efficient with your time when you’re tired.
I thought I was pretty good at setting work boundaries before, but this lockdown has really blurred the lines between work and play. It’s so hard to get anything done while you’re attempting to parent full-time.
And it makes me feel like a guilty piece of shit 24/7.
Having said that, I know that this is only temporary and I’m doing the best with what I’ve got.
As I get more into a “quarantine routine” here are some of the boundaries I hope to start sticking to:
- No work before 7:30am
- No work past 7:30pm
- No social media past 9:00pm
- Only checking emails twice per day
- Allowing it to be ok not to respond to someone immediately
I’m sure I won’t be perfect every day, but as the lockdown grows longer and longer, I need to put these boundaries in place now for my own mental health’s sake.
Drinking every night
Drinking regularly is something I picked up almost immediately after the lockdown. I think like most of us, we treated the beginning of quarantine like a holiday.
But as time goes on, drinking every day isn’t serving me and really does a number on my productivity and motivation.
So even though I am still drinking more than I usual do, I’d like to go back to drinking a bit less during the week once the lock down has lifted 🙂
Feeling guilty and anxious all the time
I already touched on this one when talking about work boundaries, but I’d like to elaborate further.
Let’s start with guilt. I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling guilty to the max for the last 6 weeks.
I feel guilty I can’t be engaging with Rachel 100% and guilty that I can’t be giving my business 100% attention.
Everyday is a constant shame battle between being a “good” parent vs being a “successful” business owner.
But my girl Emma over at Press Play Physio gave me some really good advice on what to do when those guilty feelings start to creep up:
- Figure out what story you’re telling yourself: Do you need to feel busy right now in your business/work because you’re lacking confidence, or need external validation to know that you’re valuable?
- Define what “success” means to you: Does successful mean you are busy all of the time? Is that the type of career/business you wanted to build? Or does success mean making your own hours, calling the shots and knowing that what can’t be done today, will get done tomorrow and everything will still be ok?
- Think about what you will remember when this pandemic is over: Will it be getting to spend time with your loved ones or how you worked on yourself? Or will your fondest memory be about how productive and busy you were at work?
Feeling anxious lies in the same bed as guilt; we feel anxious about the future because of the guilt we carry from the past: “Is tomorrow going to be like today again? Am I going to ‘fail’ again?”
I think if we’re able to reframe our guilt, we can lessen a lot of the anxiety we’re feeling too.
Allowing yourself to relax around “being productive” or “being busy” and giving yourself some grace right now will help you feel less anxious and less stressed.
I find it very helpful to journal when I am feeling anxious, and I love to use the prompts: “The story I am telling myself is…” and then contrast it with “What is actually happening is…”. This always helps me put things into perspective and lessen my anxiety. (I got this tip from Brene Brown)
And finally, I love a good meditation to help ground me when I’m feeling anxious. I recommend any of our meditation classes on Pilates on Demand if you are looking for a guided one.
The last thing I want to say here is that I think being in isolation has made us have to sit with our thoughts and our reality a lot more than we would like to. As a person who is always “busy”, I often ignored what my body and mind were trying to tell me because it feels uncomfortable.
This pandemic has held up a giant mirror and we are being forced to face ourselves, and we might not like everything we see.
I encourage you to take this time to take a good look at yourself and recognize what areas of your life you love and are happy with, and what areas might need a little more attention.
Because your habits form who you are. And if you don’t like who you are or where you’re at, you can change. You have the power to change your habits at any moment.
“You are what you do every day.”
Tom W. Curren
Please let me know which habits you are keeping once this is over and which ones you are ditching.
Again, thank you so much for your support. I hope this article helped you as much as it helped me 🙂
xoxo
