Here we have 9 tips plus a bonus one for you at the end, for staying healthy during isolation
1. Routine and Goals Your brain loves patterns and routines, and
maybe your normal routine is out the window right now (literally). Spending the day aimlessly
wondering around without a plan will leave your brain wondering what on earth is going
on, so lets set up some patterns for your day, your brain will thank you for it!
Let’s go old school, grab one of these ancient tools (a pen), now some repurposed flattened
white tree sheets. Not talking about your secret back up toilet roll stash, just regular
paper will do. Write down what you want to do tomorrow. Now put it into rough time slots.
Maybe it looks something like this. Get up, workout, shower, breakfast, check emails,
do work, lunch, call a friend, hobby hour, more work, FaceTime Dave, we all have a friend
called Dave who needs some love right? Dinner, hobby break 2, Rick and Morty o Netflix journaling,
reading, then bed. Sound a pretty nice day actually right? Of course you don’t have
to stick to it religiously but a general outline of your day will be your guidance and grounding
for where you should be. Do make sure to mix it up a little though on some days, but keep
a general consistency to your plans And while you are at it, do you have any goals
you want to aim for this week or month? Set some realistic dates to finish that new project
you have started and mark it on your calendar, then when that is done set some more goals.
For example, Learn that new song on the guitar next week and schedule in 30mins in the evening
and put everything else aside to do this.
2.Jouranaling We just mentioned journaling, but what’s
the deal with it? If you are having feelings of anxiety, boredom or frustration accumulating
in your head they are serving no positive purpose in there, and can eventually lead
to deeper negative feelings and moods. Journaling can be done in many ways, But the
aim is to clarify your thoughts and feelings, put a bit more order into the jumble of your
brain and get closer to the core of your problems. Just the act of getting out frustrations in
this manner can lower stress and make you more present. I advise grabbing that pen and
paper again just before bed and writing about the positives and negatives of your day. Your
brain will be less active for addressing any issues you have and it can help settle you
down for sleep without having that argument you had or that issue with work bouncing around
your brain when you switch the lights off. Unless you sleep with the lights on, then
you are a weirdo.
3.reflection/purpose And along with journaling, you might start
using this time to do some bigger reflection on yourself. Maybe you have been too busy
for a long long time to really sit with yourself and think about your purpose in life, where
you are, how you got here, what do you want going forward and what do you need? Now you
have the time to tackle some bigger questions you might have been putting off or not had
time to digest in a busy day to day life, you can really utilise this time to reflect
on bigger issues and come out of this feeling ready for a new chapter, where you can regain
some purpose.
One big question is how we spend most of our days, in our jobs. Is the job or study you
have making you happy? A lot of people are now out of work or working from home, but
do you love you job? Do you want to be doing this for the rest of your working life just
to make ends meet or is it something you really enjoy and want to be doing?
Think about tackling these four points when thinking about your current job or speculating
on a career you are passionate about. • Are you good at it?
• Do you love it? • Is it something the world needs?
• And can you earn enough from it? If you answered yes to all of these then you
are probably in the right job, but if not, is there something else you would love to
do? Of course money is a factor here but times like these can really put money into perspective,
life can be fragile and fleeting, so lets do something we can look back on and say we
loved doing right? Thinking FACE.
4. Relationships and connections (and help others)
Humans are innately social creatures, and without regular, fulfilling and varied social
interactions a feeling of loneliness can creep in, and chronic loneliness is shown to shorten
life expectancy and can be as harmful as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.
Make sure to set some time aside to be connecting with family and friends also isolating from
their homes. You will show you are looking out for them and both reap the benefits of
a dopamine rush on a video call or voice call to each other. Ask how they are really feeling
and have a listen. Maybe that friend or relative you have not
spoken to for a while, could you ring them and see how they are and get an update on
their life, all little actions that go a long way in strengthening bonds with each other
and fending off loneliness that may creep in if you decide to keep yourself to yourself.
If you are isolating with others you will be relying on them a lot and them on you.
You will need to make sure you are having time to connect together and also times apart
when you need a breather or some space. Being confined together can cause friction in any
relationship, so kindness and allocating areas for quiet time will go a long way.
Oh and don’t forget your penpal from France you had growing up, write them a letter too….
5.Social media addiction Even though we want to stay connected with
people we do need to keep our social media use in check right now more than ever. Without
much incentive in the day it can be easy to just scroll your way through a whole hour
of the day, be honest have you been doing that? After 3 days of isolation I caught myself
doing this and decided to take some action. Studies on social media use show that over
usage actually increases feelings of social isolation and in turn increases loneliness.
So I deleted the social media apps off of my phone but kept my chat apps like Messenger
and WhatsApp so I could keep the connections with people I wanted to chat and speak to,
the real quality connections you have. Give it a go, or at least allocate time to check
social media if you feel you are over using it. I actually recommend only using the internet
at this time if it has a purpose or reward for you. Like….watching this amazing video….but
after the call ring a friend yeah.
6. hobbies / time to learn something new Maybe after dropping social media you find
you have an extra hour of your day back, so you can pick up that hobby you had. Get your
camera out and start experimenting with some super arty shots, learn chords on that dusty
guitar, get creative in the kitchen and cook up a storm and throw over cooked brownies
at any youths loitering on the streets still or start looking for online classes and YouTube
tutorials for your hobby of choice. Crochet is prettttty hot right now.
If you want to learn how to animate like us we will leave a few links to good tutorials
in the description below as well.
7. Body health As well as your brain, your body might also
be growing cobwebs, how much do we miss a stroll through the park or a hike for the
gram right now? We need to keep our bodies moving, fitness lowers stress hormones, releasing
the feel good hormone dopamine. It can be a key part to our daily routines in combating
isolation. You may be allowed to go out for a daily run still but if not all you need
is a bit of space to move and jump about, 20minutes and someone to tell you what to
do. Well I need someone to tell me what to do or I just eat chips instead… Check out
Joe Wicks on YouTube, he has Home friendly HIIT videos that you can do that work up a
sweat, catering for all levels, from beginner to Olympian. I recommend his 500 rep challenge,
it’s a tough start to the day but such a rewarding challenge and leaves you feeling
energised to tackle another day. If HIIT is not your thing, check out Zumba class videos,
start a 30 day yoga challenge series, or how about learning how to do a headstand in the
two weeks even, go on we dare you, the crew will be amazed.
8. Stress reduction Stress, is dubbed the “Health Epidemic of
the 21st Century” by the World Health Organization. This is because of the ever growing amounts
of stress we are exposing ourselves to and the impacts it is having on our bodies, mind
and immune system. Stress releases the steroid hormone cortisol.
This hormone acts to reduce inflammation in short term stress situations, and when a dose
of stress dies down, cortisol will too. But when you are under more stress or constant
stress, cortisol continues to produce, and starts to wreak havoc in your body, causing
health issues such as obesity, anxiety, depression and actually increasing inflammation, all
issues that strain and weaken your immune system.
So make sure you are giving yourself enough stress free moments in the day, especially
before bed. Consider things like meditation and yoga as they are shown to reduce stress.
We also made a video on meditation and how it changes your brain, find that here and
in the description below. Oh and does anybody want to see a full series
on the 2020 modern day stress pandemic? Lets discuss in the comments!
9. What is your tip! Before our 10th and final tip I left number
9 blank and want you to let us know what your tip would be here, how are you dealing with
isolation? What is helping you? Leave a comment and I promise I will get back to you,
lets have a discussion and help others in the same boat as we all are in, but not in,
as we are 2 metres apart in our own boats that are 2 metres away from everyone else’s,
which are shaped more like houses, and in fact are just houses. Just leave a comment.
Smiley FACE.
10. Keep your brain active There is only so many times you can pace up
and down the kitchen, look out the window at the cat and check your fridge to see if
any new delicious snacks have appeared. Your brain will turn into that not so good
looking cabbage at the bottom of the fridge if you are not careful.
One fun way we can combat this boredom is with learning through creative thinking, puzzles
and problem solving. You exercise the right and left part of your brain, lower stress
levels, release dopamine (when we are have fun) and can even improve your IQ. Imagine
coming out the house after isolation smarter than when you entered, I would be ever so
proud of you. I have swapped out my Social media apps for
the Brilliant app, and I’m using that time to now test and challenge my brain with their
daily brain challenges, that are great fun to try and solve during my tea breaks or bouts
of isolation downtime. They have over 60 courses that will keep you
challenged and engaged during lockdown and in the future, on all things science and maths.
It’s a great time to take their course on the Physics of everyday, where they will take
you on a journey of learning the concept of physics using everyday objects we are very
familiar with in lockdown, like our fridges and toilets.
Go to brilliant dot org forward slash Beautiful Science and sign up for free to start testing
that brain. And if you really like what you see the first 200 people that use the link
in the description and comments below will get 20% off their annual premium subscription.
It’s a ‘brilliant’ way for you to keep on top of you mentality and a ‘brilliant’
way to support Beautiful Science right now, and it will help us make more videos, just
as a like, comment, share and subscribe will. So be brilliant and support us now in any
way you can. Brilliant.
The idea behind Beautiful Science is to give you empowerment through science learning in
a digestible manner and Brilliant are the perfect complement to this.