COVID – 19 Self Care Check List

COVID-19 Self-Care Daily Checklist

The first few days of quarantine were rough. I was scared and flailing.

Someone on Facebook posted about how they were a teacher without anyone to whom they could teach and it was wreaking havoc on them. That was me as well so I started teaching again. Helping others has always helped me but I wasn’t taking care of myself as well as I was taking care of everyone else. The flailing was coming back although not nearly as bad.

I recommitted to my meditation practice and at the suggestion of some wise people came up with my must haves.

I’m hopeful that I can take this lesson with me post-quarantine. Take care of yourselves, my sweet yogis. Take care of yourselves as well as you care for your loved ones because after all, aren’t we all loved ones?

This is what I need during this challenging time of self-quarantine.

• Mental health check-in
  • Ask myself – What do I need right now? & LISTEN TO THAT
    • It’s ok to not be ok – I can cry or dance like a crazy person or curse like a truck driver or eat my weight in potato chips or watch Netflix or all of the above at once
  • Ask for help – I can’t help others if I burn out
    • Ask for help?!? Yup, I’m learning to lean on other people and I’m grateful for the friends who’ve been there for me even when I didn’t realize that I needed them
• Connect with other people
  • Set up zoom dates
    • Skype and FaceTime work too but as time goes on even this introvert needs to SEE people
• Limit media consumption to sane amount
  • Varies daily
    • What I consider sane varies depending on my daily mental health check-in
  • Avoid the voice that completely sets me off
    • There are a few but one or two that drive me over the edge. I can’t hear them. I just can’t right now.
  • Read more, watch less
• Move more
  • Walk
    • Walking is almost like a new form of yoga for me. It gets rid of the crazy and angst. I need close to 10,000 steps every day even if that means I’m walking up and down the stairs all day. I need to be ok with the fact that it’s nowhere near my prior average of 14,000/day before this crisis – yeah, that was a humble brag. It’s my list – I can humble brag here. It’s part of my self-care. 😉
  • Yoga
    • Yoga has been part of me for so long now that yoga is part of who I am
  • Dance party
    • I loved teaching water aerobics because I got to dance around in the water and the less self-conscious, I was, the less self-conscious my clients were so I had to go outside of my comfort zone. Turns out, that wasn’t a problem for me, and I loved being able to dance around like I was 18 and back in college. I love to dance.
• Organize / Clean
  • Chaos in my space = chaos in my mind and I need space that doesn’t include chaos
    • Dusting and vacuuming are freaking wonderful because I can easily see what I’ve accomplished. I need a task that shows progress sometimes and organizing the pantry or the freezer are way too daunting.
• Early morning quiet
  • Wake before Jason and the girls and enjoy the stillness
    • Quiet time is heaven. To sit and be with myself without taking anyone else into consideration is time just for me.
• Nature
  • Even if it’s just looking at beautiful pictures but a sunset is breathtaking and a reminder of something larger than myself
• Create something
  • Bake / Cook
    • I haven’t baked much lately even though I love it because I’m cooking so much more now.
• Veggies or green juice
  • This used to be 1 of my 3 every day must haves. A green drink, yoga, and time with Maisie. I miss it. I physically feel better when I ingest more greens but I’m having to be more creative about it since I can’t grocery shop often.
• Time with the Maisie and Sophie
  • My babies are my heart.
• Laugh
  • Back in Chicago, I heard a story on NPR about the benefits of laughing and how even faking laughter is good because you eventually start to laugh and it releases endorphins or something like that. I don’t remember exactly but ever since then, I try to laugh often. I fake laugh until I’m really laughing at how silly the fake laughing is. It works.