Since the pandemic began, most of us have been working from home, either full time or part time. The pandemic will for sure end, but the home-working system will become more common and the time we spend at home will increase even more. The year is about to finish while talking about Covid 19, corona virus, quarantine, staying at home, working from home and so on. I don’t know how time passes so fast, but it has been a year since almost all this chaos has started.
Now that we are faced with a new world order, our homes are mostly the main center of our social lives. So we need to take care of ourselves more, right? Since we cannot go out as before, our physical activities may have decreased and we may have formed a close friendship with the refrigerator! Whatever happened happened. But now it’s time for a little recovery, isn’t it?
In this article, I share self-care tips for body and soul to practice at home. If you only read the titles, it may seem ordinary and not so different from other blog posts. I strongly recommend that you read the explanations instead of reading the titles. Let’s start!
1. Get a routine
We all had our routines in some way or other before our lives were turned upside down with the coronavirus. We are in times that everything changes at any moment, we are sometimes in offices, sometimes at home, and there are still some curfews going on in some places. It is of great importance that we create a new routine for ourselves while adapting to our new system, in order not to start feeling aimless.
It may be very tempting for all of us to doze off in bed until noon and work from where we lie down. But we need to get ourselves into a routine so that our laziness doesn’t cause us trouble in the long run.
Simple activities such as waking up at the same time every day, taking a shower as if we are going to the office, brushing our teeth, fixing hair, wearing makeup or shaving can be a good start. In addition, we should definitely take off the clothes we wear while sleeping and wear different clothes during the day. If you are working from home, you can set a part of your home as a working area, and from time to time you can meet with your colleagues on camera to take coffee breaks and spend time together.
Especially in these days when our movements are limited, you can create a daily sports routine in order to stay healthy. You you can do sports at home at certain times every day, go out on the street to ride a bike or go for a walk.
One of the best ways to deal with anxiety is to have a routine. In this way, we can reduce our anxiety level by signaling our brain that everything is normal.
2. Meditate
It is no coincidence that we see suggestions for meditation and yoga everywhere. Indeed, meditation, especially mindfulness meditation, will distract you from the thoughts floating in your head that cause you panic, reduce your stress, and this will strengthen your immune system.
The main thing in mindfulness meditation is awareness. You can sit in a quiet place and just breathe. In the meantime, follow your breathing, watch that cold air enters your nostrils, passes through your windpipe and goes to your lungs, your lungs are filled with air, then again passes through your windpipe and comes out of your nose in a warmed way. Try to focus only on your breathing. Thoughts will come to your mind. This is normal. But as thoughts come, take your attention away from your thoughts and focus on your breathing again.
In addition to breathing, you can also exercise awareness by scanning each part of your body one by one. For example, when you breathe, imagine the air going to your toes and feel your toes. Then imagine it going through your feet to your wrists, from there to your legs, hips, waist, chest, then to your arms, hands, fingers, neck, chin, ears, face and finally to your scalp.
Hold for a few seconds in each area and feel the relaxation of your muscles in the area of focus. The important thing in this type of meditation is to stay in the moment. As you manage to stay in the moment, you will realize that you are moving away from your thoughts and anxiety.
3. Give love to your body
One of the things I was taught by my psychologist at a time when I was struggling with anxiety was that I had to give love to my body both by touching and speaking.
Here’s how we can do it: You take some body lotion and start applying it all over your body, starting from your toes. You have to apply cream on your feet, massage and while doing so talk with your feet 🙂 I know it sounds funny but it feels really good. You can speak as you wish. You can tell them that you are grateful for them to carry you every day and how lucky you are to have them.
While applying cream on your legs, you can kiss yourself on your knees and hug your legs. You can thank your hands while applying the cream on your hands, you can say ” Thank you ” while massaging your heart, say how much you love yourself, and you will always get through everything together. Every part of your body, your arms, back, hips, even your nails deserve to be loved.
We treat ourselves very badly without realizing it. It’s ourselves whom we should really give love to, but we are not doing that. We are usually afraid of breaking a friend’s heart, but we are easily breaking our own hearts. We can call ourselves “stupid” when we make mistakes. When we do something embarrassing, we say “You are disgraced and incompetent”. Could we tell these things to someone else? So why do we tell ourselves? Both our bodies and souls expect compassion from us. We have to give ourselves that compassion these days when we are at home.
4. Use Positive Affirmations
We are what we think. Life is all about our thoughts. Unfortunately we are always very prone to thinking negative things. For example, instead of saying “I hope I will always be healthy”, we say “I hope I don’t get sick”. Instead of saying “I hope you are safe”, we say “I hope nothing bad will happen to you”. Our wishes and thoughts always consist of negative verbs, even if we mean something positive.
Our brains perceive the things we think amongst the things we see during the day. If we keep thinking about bad things, then our brains choose to see bad things rather than positive things. Because it programs itself to see what we think.
Likewise, if we think good things, we can lead our brains in this direction. Actually, there is no mystical situation here. We don’t magically get what we want with our thoughts as it’s mentioned in the book ”Secret”. The truth is that our brain believes more in what we think than what we see and is more inclined to see what we think.
For this reason, it is a fact that if we constantly say positive things and repeat affirmations, our perspective will change. For example, in this period, whenever you have the opportunity, you can say things like this to yourself in front of the mirror or by writing in a diary; “I have a perfect body. Everything I eat and drink heals me. I am very happy and peaceful. I feel healthier and happier every day. I’m confident. I trust my body. I am very precious.”
These are some of my affirmations. You can find the most appropriate words for yourself and take a step towards a more positive and happy life by repeating it every day.
5. Practice Yoga
You must be seeing people who are constantly making headstands on social media. I’ve been doing yoga for a while as well, but I can’t stand on my head for example. Even my husband who has never tried yoga was able to do this position 
on the first try, which I tried for days but couldn’t manage to do lol.
But the goal of yoga is to actually feel good in your own body. It’s to understand the harmony of our body, mind and soul. To be united with your breath and the universe. Perhaps, what we need the most these days is the feeling of being united with the universe. Because we live an isolated and lonely life in our lives like never before. Because nowadays we live more isolated lives than ever before.
One of the most important things when practicing yoga is that our movements are synchronized with our breathing. In this way, the muscles in both our mind and our body work at the same time. By practicing yoga regularly, we can gain flexibility, improve our posture, strengthen our bones, and strengthen our immune system. I think it’s worth a try.
6. Practice breathing techniques
Especially when I am anxious and when I really think I can no longer cope with anxiety, my biggest savior is always to bring my attention to my breath and apply the breathing techniques I know. Of course there are many breathing techniques, but I would like to talk about two techniques that are my wildcards. In another article I will talk about all the techniques in detail.
You can practice the box breathing technique when you feel very stressed or anxious. This method is really working for me, especially when I am suffering from hyperventilation or shortness of breath. For this, you should inhale for 4 seconds, hold your breath for 4 seconds, exhale for 4 seconds, and wait for 4 seconds with no air in your lungs. You should continue for a minimum of 5 minutes. Remember to take diaphragmatic breathing.
Another technique you can practice any time, perhaps during meditation, is alternate nostril breathing. While doing this, first close your left nostril and breathe through your right nostril. Then close the right and exhale from the left. Inhale from the left and close the left and exhale from the right. You can breathe for a few minutes with this method. As the oxygen circulation increases in your body, you can see a certain decrease in your stress.
7. Make video calls enjoyable
We all struggle with the sadness of not being able to meet with our loved ones and sometimes with the feeling of loneliness. When we can’t see our friends and family, we can find creative ways to spend time with them. Of course we all do video calls, but you can make this an even more fun and social activity.
You can play online games with your friends and organize a game night. You can organize a movie night and search for a video and watch the same movie at the same time. You can have a coffee with your colleagues during the lunch break and have your lunch together in front of the camera.
For example, at my husband’s office, they normally stay in the office on Friday evenings and drink together in the office bar. Now on Friday evenings, they connect with the camera, drink their beer and chat.
And me, while on the phone with my mom, we do sports together, haha. You can also add something to the list. Doesn’t all of this sound more uplifting than talking to people on the phone about the pandemic?
8. Be grateful
Did you know that gratitude is one of the most important things that increase our happiness? Being grateful for what we have, whether believer or not, makes us happier people. It may be hard to believe, or it might sound silly, but we can even be thankful for the effects of Covid-19. Of course we cannot be thankful for the experience itself, but we can be thankful for the new doors it has opened for us.
Remember; although crises are inherently devastating, innovations always occur in these situations.
We can be grateful; because we understood how important are the things that seemed unimportant to all of us. If we get through these days, we will better understand the value of things that seem simple, such as holding someone’s hand, kissing, hugging, getting on the bus, and walking on the street.
We can be grateful; because even though we all have to stay at our homes more than ever, we can still access whatever we want, see our loved ones and hear their voices.
We can be grateful; because there are people who call us, who are concerned about our health, and more.. When we open our eyes in the morning, let’s not think about why we still have to stay at home, how much we miss going out freely, but let’s think that we can open our eyes in a warm bed, that we have food, clean water and we are healthy.
Let us be thankful; because there is more to be thankful than anything to complain about.
9. Do the things you postpone
Is there a better time than this for you to do something you have planned for a long time, read a book you want to read, learn to play the dusty guitar that has long stood in a corner of the room?
After a few months, I have an exam in Italian, and since I don’t go to the office, I no longer come home tired and I can easily spare my evenings for studying Italian. I haven’t been able to study even a single word in months because when I come from work, I am exhausted like most of us. And on the weekends, we usually spend time outside because we don’t like to stay home. Since we have to spend more time at home, take the knits, books, paints in your hands. It’s time to do the things we put off!
10. Keep following the hygiene rules!
It is very important to continue to follow the hygiene rules while home. Daily routines such as getting up early in the morning, brushing our teeth, washing our faces and doing our hair is still very important. Not only our bodies but while doing these daily activities, we also purify mentally. We have to give the message “everything is fine” to our minds so that our anxiety don’t become unmanageable!
If you don’t feel like doing any of these, it’s also OK. Maybe you cannot exercise or eat healthy. On the contrary, you may be constantly lying in bed and eating unhealthy food. It’s OK. You may feel nervous, panicked, anxious, and worried about how this virus will affect our future. This is not important either. You are the one that is important.
Especially during this period, you should do whatever makes you feel good. Some days, I am on the move from morning to night, and the next day I don’t get out of bed all day. We are having a hard time and no one can expect you to act as if nothing is happening. But we can try to do at least something for ourselves.
Everything will be fine. Stay healthy.
You may also be interested in this article: Do we show compassion to ourselves?
