The New Normal

How is it affecting you? Are you missing your family and friends? Feeling isolated? Feeling anxious? Enjoying the quiet time at home? Working from home and teaching your kids? Everybody is dealing with their own challenges during this time of sheltering in place, schools closed, working from home, or job becoming non-functioning. Maybe you are one of the people providing care to the COVID-19 patients.
Following are some tips that may help with some of the stresses people are experiencing.
 
  1. Create a routine:
    1. Wake up and go to sleep at consistent times.
    2. Work/school/job hunt daily
    3. Exercise regularly
    4. Schedule household chores
  2. Exercise:
    1. Stretch
    2. Walk around the block or up and down your street—remember to keep social distance and don’t walk too closely behind another person
  3. Eat nutritionally and consistently, not because you are bored.
  4. Contact friends and family:
    1. Phone calls
    2. Video chats
    3. Social media, but keep it limited and try to read posts that are encouraging.
  5. Listen to music—what soothes you or energizes you, depending on your current mood.
  6. Help, if you can, virtually:
    1. Make cards to cheer up others or thank people for what they are doing
    2. Organize a birthday parade, again keeping social distance
    3. Donate—there are many worthy causes.
  7. Worship – stay connected to your church family.
  8. Keep your brain active:
    1. Read
    2. Play games (solo, with others in your home, online with friends/family)
    3. Jigsaw puzzles
  9. Write in a journal to express your feelings and give your anxieties to God.
  10. Be creative:
    1. Learn something new
    2. Try a new activity
    3. Share your ideas with others—it may help someone else.
If you are a care provider, THANK YOU for all you are doing.
 
Lastly, if you need/want to talk to someone regarding the “new normal” or any other aspect of your life, contact Laura Eichner or Ernie Klatt. Stephen Ministers are available to talk with you and to listen.