Recently I was talking to a friend. We were having a catch up call and trying to fill each other in on the happenings in our lives. We do these calls regularly – admittedly, they’ve fallen off a bit over the last few months. There is so much ground to cover. I was filling her in on the ins and outs of my world. I talked to her about my worry for my mother who lives near me and my father who lives on the opposite end of the country. In many ways, we’ve turned into the parentals during this time of coronavirus. I was feeling the weight of being concerned for both my parents as well as my husband and children. Ah yes, and myself. The conversation turned to self care in quarantine.
She asked how I was balancing all of this worry. In times past, I think I’d have a hard time coming up with an answer to this question. These days though, I was happy to report that I am taking pretty good care of myself. I think it helped that I was already on my way to a pretty good self care routine when this quarantine started. The hard part began when I had to integrate my self care with the care of my family. We have been spending all of our time together for the last five months. It’s not as easy to carve out me time in our current daily life. I quickly realized though, that I had to make it a priority.
When I think about it, I don’t think I’ve taken such good care of myself in a long time. On the one hand, I’m proud. On the other, it makes me sad because it took a whole pandemic to really be intentional about making time for me on a consistent basis.
Self care in quarantine
What am I doing? Well, I am working out six times a week. The number of days is new. My commitment has stepped up in this area because it’s good for my mental well being as well the physical benefits. I don’t feel like me until I put in that sweat time.
I do regular facials. Mainly because I realized I was hoarding products and needed to use them before they go bad. What better time than now!?
I’m reading all the books. From romance novels to books regarding history and social justice, I’m on it!
One other thing I’m doing is taking my time in the shower. I have a bluetooth shower speaker that I use to listen to my fave tunes or a podcast while I shower. It’s uninterrupted time and I treasure it. Of course my shower ends way before the podcast but I keep it going while I’m getting dressed.
What’s your self care in quarantine looking like? How are you taking care of you?
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