Managing Quarantine Anxiety via Routines: A Lifeline of Sanity & Strength
Fear, Anxiety, Worry, Panic & Paralysis: We are all coping with the Coronavirus pandemic quarantine or lockdown in different ways, but one way that everyone can calm the anxiety and chaos, and get through each day better is to have a daily routine.
Normally our routines are structured on what we do outside of our homes, work, school, exercise, shopping for example. Now that we are literally on lockdown in our homes, there is no outside world schedule to adhere to. Whether we realize it or not, we all have routines that we do every single day. That’s simply how our brains are wired.
Think about what makes for a really good day, and then reverse engineer that to come up with ways that you can plant a few seeds each day to make tomorrow better. For example, it’s much more pleasant to wake up to a clean and tidy kitchen, even better if you can set your coffeemaker to brew automatically before you wake up. The real strength of routines is that over time they build up a momentum and take less and less time to execute. Over time, it seems like it will take more effort not to do your routines.
If you live alone, it’s more important for you than anyone else to keep a routine. This will be a lifeline to maintaining a semblance of normalcy and not letting the days just drift into one another. Taking a shower and getting dressed every day even if you are not leaving the house will make a world of difference to your anxiety and stress levels during this slow-moving disaster.