How COVID got me Back on Track
· BEING SUPER STRESSED 24/7
I was chatting with my friend a few days back. Now this is the friend who was super busy, super stressed trying to balance her work, her home and her life till last year. Then COVID happened. Like most of us her life just came to a stop. She was not sure of her job. To add to her stress, her teenaged son, like most teenagers, was intelligent with not enough focus to match and had her worried to bits. Her ailing parents moved in as they needed special care during COVID and ofcourse being a single parent with no house help did not help her cause. She felt stuck and insecure and like a victim where everything bad just happens to her. With this mindset, even though she was carrying on, she was finding it difficulty to cope with this stress in life.
· HOW TO PLAN YOUR DAY
So when I was chatting with her recently, this is how she said she learnt to cope with life. And I want to share it with you all her inspiring transformation journey. One day, she said enough is enough. Playing victim was costing her happiness, her quality of work and life was suffering. And this is what she did. It was like I was seeing a new version 2.0 of my friend. Now this is how her new schedule panned out. Get up at 5am. Yes, getting organized and taking the trouble to get up earlier is well worth your time she said. Get up at 5am and sit in bed, stretch, smile and then start with a half hour of meditation. Meditation happens even if you sit on your bed, close your eyes, breath in through slowly your nose and breath out through your mouth even more slowly, and watch the traffic of thoughts in your mind. Just watch like in a movie. Don’t wish them away, don’t stay with your thought. Let them come and go. That can be a great way to meditate and start your day with a smile.
· WHY OUTSOURCE
Then she gets some mandatory house work like cooking, laundry out of the way by outsourcings help. Initially she wanted to be seen as strong and capable and wanted to do all the work herself. The 2.0 version of her decided to invest in outsourcing for these ‘mundane have to get done’ stuff . She gets up early and plans her day, both house work and office work, all in one go. Worth getting up a bit early when u can be organized for the day. It becomes less of a stress. Planning helps, she says. Now she also prioritizes. The provision is planned and ordered monthly, the fruits and veges ordered weekly, thanks to the online ordering that she learnt to be adept at. Her office appointments and meetings are also planned weekly. Less stress and more work gets done. And she finds this helps her mental health and is able to devote time to her physical health as well.
· MAKING ME TIME…
Being a doctor she opted for her clinic time of 10am to 4 pm. This gave her time to get herself groomed. Being well groomed does add to your internal confidence. She also leaves reminders for her son, which they together co-plan. And he is only too happy to suddenly be treated as a responsible adult. The same son who used to play truant to do his homework and studies, now felt more confident when his mom started treating him with respect, as he put it.
· HOW TO EFFECTIVELY SAY ‘NO’
She adopted a ‘no work after 5 pm policy’. Back home she spent some relaxed and social time, watching movies, reading and chatting with friends. The last one hour before she retires was left to spending time with her parents, sorting out their medicines, allowing them to vent their frustrations, aches and pains. She learnt the value of saying an assertive ‘No’. That was one big learning in the step of achieving a holistic health and achieving her goals and being able to ace her professional and personal life.
· COVID = OPPORTUNITY
To sum it up, she said COVID offered her such a grounding and humbling experience. She realized how important family and friends are and how to prioritize your time, and most important, how to say ‘NO’ to something that interferes with your schedule and peace of mind.
This is coachgeeta signing off.
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