How are you feeling about this second lockdown? Anxious about the health of your family and friends? Lonely? Frustrated? Bored? However you’re feeling at the moment, it’s time to take your health back to basics. Here are our top tips for keeping your mind and body healthy during lockdown.
Five ways to keep a healthy mind this lockdown
- Seek support if you need it. This is a tricky time, and it’s perfectly normal to feel a bit under the weather. But if you’re feeling worse than that on a day-to-day basis, then get some help. We’re here to talk things over, on the phone and in person.
- Make a designated work area. Working at home might sound like a good idea, but all too often we end up with a laptop, in our pyjamas, on the sofa. Creating a specific area to work means that you can leave that zone physically and therefore mentally at the end of the day. That could mean closing the door on your office or simply popping your laptop away in a drawer. The key is: out of sight, out of mind.
- Stay in touch, but without the frills. Talking to friends and family is so important for good mental health. But sometimes virtual catch-ups can be draining. So, this lockdown, say no to video calls and quizzes. Instead, keep it simple and pick up the phone. And how about sending a postcard? You’ll make someone’s day, and that just might make yours too.
- Less blue light, more green space. It’s time to stop scrolling mindlessly and be mindfully out in nature. Getting outside while it’s still light can be a challenge at this time of year, but even looking away from your screen every 20 minutes and out the window at some green can really help to lift mood and reduce stress.
- Start a fun list. Now, we get that the words fun and list don’t usually belong together. But not having things in the diary to look forward to can be one of the hardest parts of lockdown. So why not make a list of fun activities for you and your family? Whenever you reach the inevitable “but what now?” question, cross something off.
Five ways to keep a healthy body this lockdown
- Maintain your regular check-ups. Don’t neglect your health because of the pandemic. The faster we see you, the faster you’ll start to feel better. Whether it’s a screening you’ve been putting off or you’ve not been feeling your best recently, get in touch.
- Rate your hunger before you eat. When we’re stuck at home, it’s so easy to fill time with snacking. Bored? Have a snack. Tired? Have a snack. Need a break? Have a snack. So, every time you’re about to dip into the biscuit tin, check in with yourself and ask: how hungry am I on a scale of one to ten? Only eat if you’re a seven or above.
- Have several alcohol-free evenings a week. With all these long evenings, we can all slip into bad habits. Alcohol-free evenings are a simple way to reduce your consumption. And no, it doesn’t mean you can make up for it on the other days.
- Get up and walk five minutes for every hour. Walk up the stairs. Walk down the street. Walk around your garden. Just keep moving. And if you can add in a walk at the beginning and end of your day – like a mini commute – too, you’ll be on the right track in no time.
- Only eat at your table. That’s all your meals and any snacks as well. No more eating while standing at the fridge or while tapping away at your computer. When we eat at the table without any distractions, we eat slower, so we feel full faster, so we eat less. Simple.
So there you have it. Ten simple tips for leading a healthy lockdown life. Because you don’t need to spend this lockdown baking sourdough and reading War and Peace. Keep it simple, and take it one day at a time.
