12 Self-Care Tips To Help You Feel Good During COVID-19 Lockdown

Now that we are smack in the middle of a 21-day  lockdown and have plenty of time on our hands, this is the perfect time to turn our focus onto something which most of us are guilty of neglecting: us. Perhaps one of the perks of social distancing is that it has given us some much-needed space. With less interaction with the outside world and other people, we do not have to worry about pleasing others and putting their needs over that of our own. Now is the time to put yourself first and do things that will make you feel happy and relaxed. In such difficult times we all deserve a little self-love and what better way to do that than self-care?

Not to worry if you don't know how or where to start, here are 12 tips for self-care that you can practice.

Cooking

Time to stir the pot a little, even if it is to make instant noodles. During the lockdown, cooking has emerged as a go-to chore for many to pass time, provide nourishment to the body, and to fill up the wide hole left by the absence of takeaway meals and gourmet restaurants. People are cooking because they have to cook. Or because they have nothing better to do. But also because it is therapeutic. Cooking or baking a dish that you like to eat may prove to be a fulfilling experience. Plus home-cooked food is healthier, which means this one is both for the body and for the soul.

With various cooking trends and challenges doing rounds on social media, why not try new recipes, and flaunt your newly acquired skills in front of your friends and family digitally. this could also be a good distraction from constant news updates on COVID-19.

People are cooking because they have to cook. Or because they have nothing better to do. But also because it is therapeutic. Cooking or baking a dish that you like to eat may prove to be a fulfilling experience.

Catching up with your long-lost friends

Life before COVId-19 was busy ad eventful. A lot of us had little time to catch up long-lost friends. We often wonder whatever happened to that girl who used to share tiffin with us during recess in the fifth standard. Or what's up with the BBF from the seventh standard who we lost touch with. Now is the time to find out. Use the power of digital technology at your disposal and reach out to old friends via social media. Talk, text, video call and catch up. A heart to heart with an old school friend, reliving your childhood, will not only make you feel good but also bring back a valuable person, the one you cherished a lot at one point of time.

Also Read: How Instant Noodles Are A Saviour For Many Amidst This Lockdown

Taking a long bath

This self-care practice can never go wrong. Stress, anxiety, exhaustion, no matter what, a nice long bath can help you relax your mind and body. If you are living with family, then this will also count as a little me-time that'll help you regroup your thoughts.

Practice your self-care routine

Take your sweet time to go through your morning self-care routine and your bedtime routine. You can also experiment with some home-made masks as well as face packs. You can make these masks with just simple everyday ingredients like milk, cream, aloe vera, besan, etc.

Spend time in your garden or your terrace

Have your morning coffee outside in your garden with a fresh cool breeze in your face and the sound of birds chirping. You can also enjoy your evening tea watching the sunset from your terrace. Now that we have got time, we should learn to reap these little pleasures of life that bring so much joy to our day to day life.

You can also enjoy your evening tea watching the sunset from your terrace.

Exercise

This is one of the ways to not let the lockdown get to your head. You can go for different kinds of workouts which can be done indoors like yoga, cardio, treadmill, etc. There are so many indoor exercise videos available online that you can practice at home. Exercise helps you clear your mind as well as stay healthy and feel good. Taking out an hour or so to workout will bring positivity in your mindset too.

Keep the creative juices flowing at home, here's how.

Sleep

Staying at home all the time means that we go lax on our bedtime. Just one more episode of that web-series, we tell ourselves, because why not. There's no hurry to get up early and thus we go to sleep late. but these erratic sleeping patterns may affect our sleep cycle. So make sure that you get enough sleep. Instead of staying up late, use this time to catch up on your sleep and reduce your sleep debt.

Organise

Remember the cupboard and the bookshelf that you were supposed to organize three months back? Now you can clear all the clutter and mess in your room and at your home. This will help relieve the stress as well as make you feel more comfortable and happy in your home. Scoring extra spaces to store by decluttering is an added advantage.

Set screen time

This is very important so that you don't waste all your time binge-watching series and movies and not do anything productive. Too much screen time will affect your vision and make you feel irritable and sluggish. So put a cap on your screentime, and use your day to pursue other chores. these chores don't have to always be productive, you can do something unproductive like playing ludo with your sibling, just because it'll be fun.

Also Read: Living Under COVID-19: Taking care of your Mental Health

Explore your creativity

Letting your creative juices flow will refresh your brain and offer a respite from a life that may seem very dull and mundane right now. Redecorate the house with DIY hacks, paint, sketch, sing, write. Do whatever that challenges your mind to think out of the box.

Revisit an old skill

All of us have a kill that we have now stopped putting to use due to different reasons. This might be an opportunity to revisit that old skill and rediscover why you fell in love with that particular thing in the first place. We often let go of skills that we think are useless because they cannot be monetized. But under current circumstances, mental peace and happiness are a luxury and these skills could just buy us those.

Shreya is an intern with SheThePeople.TV. The views expressed are the author's own.