Hello everyone! I hope you are all doing well and coping with this current situation as well as one can. I’ve been doing well for the most part, luckily!
As you may know, I live on my own and have been for well over four years at this point, so these lockdowns aren’t as fun or ‘social’ as they may be as for someone who lives with other people.
But since I know that I have a tendency to let outer circumstances effect my mental health, I try my best to do little things to make sure I stay at a constant level with my mental health and it’s been working fairly well, so I thought I might share it here with you guys too. 🙂
#1 Visit Family
Ever since this pandemic started and we went into our first lockdown, I have made it a point to spend time with my parents and siblings so I get at least some interaction in outside of my amazing online friends who have been keeping me company as we’re all in the same boat, after all.
You may know that my dad had heart surgery in 2020, so he’s part of the higher risk category which means we’re all staying safe and making sure to follow guidelines as well as possible.
And since there is nothing quite like spending time with the tiny humans in my life, I also make it a point to visit my parents if I know that my sisters will be there with their kids. I adore my tiny nephews with every inch of my being and they bring us all so much joy by just being themselves.
#2 Take Time For Hobbies
If you’ve been following my blog for a while, you probably know that I used to post about my bullet journal on here regularly but I had kind of fallen out of love with it a bit as time went on. But I have to say, I’ve really been enjoying working in my journal again ever since I’ve decided to just do whatever it is that I enjoy and not let myself be influenced by what I see other people in the journaling community do.
Sure, I still watch journaling videos but now it’s more so for inspiration and ideas of which techniques I could try and use in my own journal and less about what type of spreads I should do.
Actually, here’s a YouTube video I filmed recently that shows you my journal and the progression it has made since I started it. And also, I recently started a YouTube channel and have been filming for and uploading to it this month and it’s been so much fun!
I guess that’s something else I’ve been doing to cope with this pandemic: trying new hobbies! Trust me, I never thought doing YouTube would be something I would enjoy but here I am. 🙂
#3 Get Some Fresh Air
Getting fresh air is something I constantly have to remind myself to do more often – especially during these colder and darker months. I feel like its so much easier to do when the sun is shining and it’s nice and warm out to motivate yourself to leave your house, but the winter months. Oh those winter months.
Today (or, Sunday) was a great day! It was cold and it was snowing. Snowing. I adore the snow and so, as soon as I saw that it was snowing this morning I got dressed and got outside for a nice long walk. It was beautiful. I was honestly just so, so happy to be outside and to feel the cold on my face.
My goal is still to make it more of a routine to get outside and get in some walks as I’ve gotten quite lazy this past year.
#4 Dive Into Things Fully
Usually, I’m someone who tries to take things more slowly. I’ll take my time to explore new hobbies or to get into shows but this past year I’ve been diving into most things at full speed – see my YouTube channel and even return to blogging.
My plan is still to not put pressure on myself and to go about YouTube and blogging at a slower pace than I probably would do otherwise, but I’m fully committed to it, which I would usually have more of a trial period – especially something that can take up as much time as YouTube. And even with my bullet journal, I’ve usually been doing multiple pages and spreads at once rather than just a single one here and there.
#5 Keeping An Eye On My Mental Health
You may know that I’ve been going to therapy regularly since March 2020 and thanks to that I’ve also been paying more attention to my overall mental health during this pandemic.
I make it a lot more of a point to take time to myself whenever I need it or to ask my parents for their car so I can visit my sister and three oldest nephews whenever I want/need some human interaction.
I feel like living on my own for over four years now has definitely benefited me when it came to having to stay home and not being able to go out and meet people as often. I’m perfectly fine being myself 95% of the time. I love my own company and the company of my hobbies, I don’t always need humans around me. I think the only thing I kind of miss is being able to go browse in stores and seeing what new journaling supplies they have as that’s something I enjoy a lot. But it’s also good because I’m not spending any extra money!
How about you guys? How have you been coping with this pandemic? Are there any fun things you’ve started doing to better handle it all? Please share in the comments so we can hopefully all benefit from our experiences! 🙂
The Caffeinated Bookworm Life 
I think these are great ways of coping with this seemingly endless pandemic!
For me, I’ve been living with my parents, which is actually perfect for my situation. I have people around to talk to, but for most of the day I can stay in my room unbothered.
I’ve been in school online for the past few months, which honestly has kept me busy enough that I barely have the time to leave the house anyways! I’m currently on my last week or two of winter break, and what I’ve found is while I’m not in classes, it’s important for me to have structure in my day. Whether that’s planning to do a puzzle the next day, or to pick up books from the library, I like having a plan for when I wake up the next morning.
The one thing that I’m trying to work on now is being more active. Especially when I’m in school, I’m sitting at my desk, hurriedly taking notes for several hours at a time. I need to get better at taking time to stop and stretch and move my body or go for a walk! I’m still in the planning stages of how to accomplish my goal of being more active, but hopefully I’ll have it all figured out soon!
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I really liked hearing how you have been coping with everything going on! I have definitely taken a lot more walks, I try to go outside once a day so I get some fresh air & it has really helped me clear my head 😊 Apart from that I have also been mostly coping by doing my hobbies and even exploring new ones that relax me 😄
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For me, I make sure that I was exposed to the sun as much as I can because I live in an apartment now and the lighting is not so good as there’s a building blocking the course of light just right in from of my room’s windows.
I have been feeling under the weather and I hope this pandemic would ended soon. The lack of social interaction and physical activities are going to hurt my body.
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