It’s important to get good rest. Have a balance of rest and work. Keep the two cycles- ‘WORK & SLEEP’ in good order. Do not be too late into the night playing on your phone or watching TV shows. Stop information overload. Do keep track of the news and the developments but don’t give yourself an overdose. Do not over stimulate your brain with the non-essentials. Be focused on the essential information. Start your day with a good night sleep.
Take care of the three H’s – HEALTH, HEAD & HEART. a. Take good care of your HEALTH. Start your day with some exercise… pump in a lot of oxygen into your system. Make your lungs and heart stronger. Adopt a fitness regime and build a stronger immune system. Eat nutritious food…drink lots of water… take vitamin supplements if needed…you are what you eat! b. Just as we need nourishment for our physical health, we need nourishment for our mental health – HEAD…keep enriching yourself with new learnings…read good books, watch videos that would enrich your knowledge, sharpen your futuristic skills, communication, your critical and creative thinking, problem solving, analytical skills…learn how to remember things quickly…tricks that will help you to memorize things better…as it is said that there is no good or bad memory its trained or untrained mind. But a big BUT!! don’t just be an intellectual giant with head as big as that of HUMPTY DUMPTY but the heart shrunk to the size of a peanut. Such situation sometimes cause imbalance and then if you try to be only full of yourself there is always a fear of you toppling down like Humpty Dumpty. c. Hence take care of your HEART as well. Be kind and compassionate be large hearted, extend your help to others at home, see if your neighbours might be in bigger crises, not necessarily by visiting them but through phone calls, in case some have caught Covid19 in your neighbourhood don’t treat them as outcast. Be empathetic. Be kind. If u have a will you can extend your reach in many ways.
Wash out all negativities from your system. Do not allow them to crawl all over you! They are nuisance! Do reflective thinking and meditate. Lord Gautama Buddha had been able to find such inner peace by his reflective thinking. There is so much joy in being able to willingly give because it is then that you truly receive. Be happy and Be peaceful. Do not be disturbed by the limitations of others.
Be organized. Prioritize and maintain a ‘To do list’… what you need to do the whole day. If possible, plan a list the previous night itself and as you complete the work in the list strike it out. It will give you so immense pleasure… try and target the biggest of the task first thing because if you cross the biggest task you will feel a sense of achievement and this will enthuse you to do the other tasks in a more spirited manner. It is like a therapy.
Avoid multitasking. Do one task at a time. Do not do any task half-heartedly or by giving divided attention. Surf the net find out what is POMODORO TECHNIQUE!! It’s interesting and also very effective. It says take bite size, not long stretches of work. Attention span must be taken care of.
Get Creative. Try out your hands at activities you may be good at but had not given enough attention to. Do not be fearful of being rudimentary in your presentation, let not perfection come in the way of good. It is ok to fail or stumble coz we learn with experience because that will help us innovate and create. When we experiment, we learn better, in fact our learning deepens.
Write a journal. Maintain a diary. Keep jotting the things you learn and revisit them. Just try and be better than what you used to be. There is no need to be better than someone. Just better yourself.
Keep your environment clean- that is also important. If your external order is in place, your internal order will also be in place.
Just relax. Don’t be hard on yourself, love yourself, take care of your well-being. Connect with your positive friends and extended family. Laugh out loud, watch some entertaining shows, play some fun games, be in touch with nature. If in a flat do windowsill gardening. If open space outside or garden nothing like it!! have fun time outside in the evening. Have Me time too. Pamper yourself.
STOP. REFLECT. RESTART. Covid19 has given us opportunity to halt to pause…we were all in a maddening rush…STOP & THINK…REFLECT and then RESTART…but for heaven’s sake See that you do not start in the same direction if you have realized that it wasn’t the right direction, take a U-turn. Go the correct way. The biggest tragedy will be, if we do not learn or have any takeaways from this situation-the potential lessons that it is offering it to us, then it is no point facing such a big crisis. Winston Churchill said ‘Never waste a good crisis’. There is so much merit in what he said. Let us learn from it.
