So you found yourself in the midst of a pandemic with anxiety riding high and a lot of time on your hands to contemplate the worst case scenario on how this all pans out.
Calm down. Here’s how you can take this hectic time and turn it into something productive that can help move your body and life forward.
Breathe
With the constant influx of news, twitter and click-baity headlines incentivized into inducing you into a panic – remember to do this.
Breathe.
Instead of getting wound up about the 1000 ways this can go poorly, just sit back, breath and focus on now. It can be one of the best ways to stay calm in the midst of a pandemic.
Join an Online Yoga Class
If you’re like most people making the transition to work from home, you’re finding out that you’re spending a lot of time sitting, not a lot of time moving, and you need to stretch your hips and move your body a lot more to replace all the daily movement you’re used to.
A great way to do this is through online yoga or fitness classes. Fortunately, there are apps like MoveWell offering free online live yoga Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.
Keep moving and stay flexy so you don’t have any nasty issues like lumbago sneak up on you.
Facetime A Friend
If you can’t see your friends in person, put time on the calendar with your friends to do facetime or zoom call.
Kick back, have a virtual cocktail and be sure to catch up. You can use something like Netflix Party or something similar so if you’re going to intentionally be non-productive, you can at least do it with friends.
Start a Blog
In 2009, I was in a similar position. In the middle of a financial crisis, I was at home, holed up, with lots of free time. I could have burned it on binging Netflix, but instead I used it to create a blog. Over the past decade, it’s been the #1 life changing tool I’ve used in both my personal life and business.
You can get started with a free blog tutorial and there are even services that will do it for you – but blogging helps clear your thoughts, focus your work and build an audience – all incredibly useful things to have when this pandemic is over.
Read More Books
With all the technology in our lives, it can be easy to forget one of the best ways to come up with great ideas is through reading. If you’ve got a stack of books you’ve been meaning to make your way through over the past few months, now is a good time to start catching up on them.
If you need a primer, here’s a good starting list of my favorite books that you can get started with.
Stay safe and work hard. What are you doing to stay productive (and sane) in the middle of this wild week?