Celebrating the End of Week Two of Staying at Home

Weekly Wisdom

City of Boulder enforcing the Stay At Home! Rule *

Hello There!

We've made it through TWO FULL WEEKS of staying at home and maintaining social distancing! That is something to congratulate ourselves for! It has been, for most of us,  a disorienting, frightening, angering and depressing time but we have DONE IT! And it is truly making a difference here in Colorado and elsewhere (see chart from today's newspaper below).

HOWEVER, as we all know, we are not in the clear yet and we will probably be under these restrictions for quite awhile yet. So here are a few tips for maintaining your sanity gleaned from various different sources.

• As distancing physically from other people continues it is as vitally important to maintain your MENTAL HEALTH as it is to maintain your physical health.  You need to monitor your anxiety level on a daily, hourly, or even minute by minute basis and take proactive steps to reduce that anxiety.
• Ask yourself and your loved ones: WHAT DO YOU MISS THE MOST RIGHT NOW? The answers may surprise you, they most certainly will give you insight into what is grieving you the most right now. Parents who have asked their kids this question have heard some surprising answers like "I miss going to school" (this from kids who have always maintained how much they hate school. If you ask them to expand on what exactly they miss about not being in school you'll get even more insight. And if you carefully contemplate your own answer to that question you can find out what steps you need to take to make yourself feel less deprived. (Personally, at the moment I miss going out to restaurants with friends the most right now--eating good food someone else prepared, sharing good conversation, being around alot of other people laughing and have a good time).
  
• Brainstorm ways to fill that hole. Kids might need lots of on-line get togethers with their friends or to have a virtuaal conversation with a favorite teacher. There people doing all kinds of creative things on line via Zoom for FaceTime or Skype, like having happy hours together, doing crafts together, having coffee or even sharing dinners that they plan ahead so everyone is eating the same food.
  
• Ask yourself and loved ones: WHAT ARE YOU MOST AFRAID OF RIGHT NOW? The answer to this question may shift from day to day but its an especially important one to ask when you are feeling highly anxious, angry or depressed. Again, try to tease out the answer until you get down the most prominent fear in the present moment. Give yourself a moment to just feel the full force of that fear, breathe deeply for a few moments and then ask yourself what the odds are of that thing happening. Try to be rational about it. Or write down that fear and come back to it later when you are feeling calmer and more hopeful.
  
• Do everything you can to STAY POSITIVE, to focus on good things that are happening and the progress that is being made in fighting this nasty virus. In Colorado right now, the number of new cases is not doubling at anywhere near the rate they were even two weeks ago. Keeping our distance from one another is WORKING!!