In times when being indoors is unavoidable, here are five simple tips to help decrease anxiety.
Tip 1-Routine is everything
When we are relaxing on summer vacation, we want no reminders of our daily schedule and that is perfectly ok! However, in times when being indoors for an extended period of time is forced upon us, keeping a similar daily routine helps to provide us with comfort, stability and sense of control. Try to keep as close to your normal routine as possible. Keep to a similar rotuine of eating meals and wake time/bedtime (or as close to normal as possible.) This will help to keep your natural daily sleep and wake system in check.
Tip 2-Planning is essential
Planning out your day will help. You do not have to plan hour by hour, but when we are already bored we have an extremely hard time conjuring up things to do, having them prepared ahead of time will be useful.
Tip 3-Social communication is actually necessary
Make time for FaceTime calls, or Zoom chats OR good old fashion phone conversations. This will help you feel connected to others while chipping away at the long hours inside.
Tip 4- Limit news and social media
Whether it be threat of bad weather or threat of a virus, too much information can and will change our anxiety state and overall mood. Limit your time watching news programs and social media updates, to no more than one hour in the morning and one hour in the late afternoon. This is plenty of time to stay up to date on needed information. You will find that during the hours that you avoid these images, reports and updates, anxiety can decrease and feelings of hope can reappear.
Tip 5-Always listen to Mr. Rogers
One of the most kind, friendly and beautiful minds of his time. Mr. Rogers told us to always look for the helpers. When there is threat of storms and outages, there are helpers, when there is illness and sickness there are helpers, when there are people in need and hunger, there are helpers. They will remind you of all the good in the world and it will remind us all of our parts to play in it. Whether our own role is to comfort our children, call to check on our neighbors or spread positive thoughts of praise and kindness to those people who are the helpers, we will all feel better if we look for the good.