 Thanks to the COVID-19 pandemic, many people throughout the country and around the world are finding themselves rather suddenly working from the confines of their own home. If you are someone who has grown accustomed to commuting to and from your office each day, working alongside others, and being away from home for 9+ hours each day, these changes are big.
Huge! Gone are your long, social, chatty daily rides on the train to and from work where you often get to sit with that nice lady from that big finance firm and that kind gentleman from that non-profit education program. Gone is the hustle and bustle of the subway station after work as you dart quickly through the crowd to catch your standing room only train ride home. Gone are the opportunities to stand at your coworker’s desk and catch them up on the latest drama with the other soccer moms or the newest item on your cousin’s baby shower registry. Gone are the lunches in the break room where you belly laugh with your coworkers for 20 minutes each day and commiserate about the latest work directives. Gone are your hour long car rides alone where you can listen to whatever you want on the radio, whether you are blasting 80’s rock tunes or singling along to 90’s ballads. Things are going to look very different for a while now. Your work week filled with other people, lots of noise, and hustle and bustle is now a long 5 days filled with very little physical contact with other humans, a lot of silence, and a whole lot of stillness. At first, these changes might be a nice break from your busy work life but, after a little bit of time, you may find that you are getting antsy and would give almost anything to go back to the way it used to be pre-COVID-19. Despite the challenges of these times, though, if you follow these 10 strategies for transitioning to working from home, you just may find some joy in this new temporary normal. 1. Establish Working Hours One of the biggest challenges when working from home is that there are suddenly no clear boundaries between work hours and non-work hours. Decide what time your work day will start and what time your work day will end. If you were a commuter, you’ve now gained some extra non-work time at home at both the beginning and end of the day. What can you fill it with that will be fun, relaxing or restorative instead of just filling it with more work? Resist the pressure to start work early or “stay” late. 2. Keep Your Morning Routine It’s tempting to plan to stay in your pajamas all day (or at least your pajama bottoms if you have some video conference calls). But, resist the urge and instead continue to spend time getting yourself ready for work each morning. Take your shower, make your bed, do your hair, put on your makeup, and wear something that you wouldn’t wear at home on a Saturday morning. Doing so will help your brain to understand that there is a difference between work hours and non-work hours. 3. Set Up Your Work Space Select an area of your home where you will be comfortable setting up your work space. You may even choose to select multiple areas and move your “office” throughout the day. Be creative. Feel free to order a few things online or re-purpose some wall hangings, art, or pictures from other areas of your home. As the weather gets nicer is there an area outside where you can do some work? Make your work space inviting and personalized. 4. Take Breaks Alone When you “arrive” to work each day, take a look at your schedule and decide when you will take some breaks and then use those breaks to do something for yourself. Take a quick walk outside. Have a cup of tea in another room. Download a meditation app and do a 5 minute meditation. Read a few pages of a book. It doesn’t really matter what you do as long as it isn’t work or household chores and is something that allows you to relax for just a few minutes. 5. Spend Time With Your Children If you are one of the vast number of parents who now have children home for weeks and months at a time, you are probably feeling the pull between attending to your work tasks and attending to your children’s needs. Plot out time each day to be with your children where you are not focusing on their at-home learning. Plan to eat lunch with them or take “coffee” breaks with them. Take the dog on a walk with them. Throw the baseball around with them. Be with them and enjoy this once in a lifetime chance to be at home together. 6. Check In With Your Partner These times are going to put a strain on many relationships. Couples who are used to not seeing each other all day everyday may be in for a bit of a shock with just how much they will be seeing of each other’s faces soon. Or, maybe one member of the couple is an essential employee and can’t be working from home, leaving the other member of the partnership to be feeling a bit more of the responsibility of having to work from home while caring for kids. Maybe this new set up will leave you feeling a financial strain. Chances are, no matter what the circumstances, this is going to be stressful for many couples. Talk with each other about it and find out what you each will need in order to feel supported during this time. Have a little “staff meeting” with each other at the start of each work week and at the end of each work week where you check in about what worked and what could have gone better. Communication is key! 7. Feel Your Feelings We are living through a time quite unlike anything many of us have ever experienced. No matter how stressful your job, your commute, or your relationships with coworkers may be, having it all change so suddenly can feel traumatic at times. Don’t be surprised if you find yourself feeling anxious, angry, sad, and/or numb. Allow yourself to cry, shout into the shower water, punch a pillow, or just sit and feel nothing. There is a lot of grief in what we are currently experiencing and the only way to deal with grief is to feel it. 8. Reach Out With limited social gatherings, it is going to be very easy to find yourself feeling isolated and lonely very quickly. Make it a point to reach out to friends via text, Facetime, social apps, and even the good old telephone. Schedule group chats with your friends where you can check in together a little bit without being physically near each other. Maintaining friendships and connections may take a little more effort these days. It’s worth it! 9. Focus On Your Health It is really tempting with gyms closing and our lives turning inward for a while to open up that bag of chips and throw our diets and exercise plans out the window. The reality is that we need to do the opposite right now. Make a plan for your meals and for at home workouts. Commit to your plan with a friend or your partner and check in regularly. After all, what boosts our immune system more than taking care of our bodies with good nutrition and healthy fitness habits? 10. Change Your Social Media Many people’s inclination right now might be to limit your use of social media but I think we NEED social media right now. We need to feel connected to each other, part of something bigger. Lean into social media but do it in a completely different way. Hide, snooze, and ignore a whole lot of people for the next 30 days. If you are feeling deeply triggered, irritated, hurt, or angered by someone’s posts, get them off your feed for the time being. There’s no space for that right now. Fill your feed with lightness. Hide the news — you can find it when you need it. Post fun photos. Ask engaging questions. Talk about books, movies, and television. Share helpful tips. Post recipe reviews. Share at home workouts. Social media can be an important lifeline to each other right now if we use it in the right way. These days ahead of us are going to feel strange, challenging, and sometimes even painful. But, if we are mindful and deliberate in how we approach this time in our life, we just might find that these days could be ones filled with memories, laughter, and a renewed connection to ourselves and the people we love.
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 Everywhere we look right now we hear and see the same few words over and over again.
For many of us, this constant news cycle can be overwhelming, tapping into our already somewhat heightened levels of anxiety. For those of us that are parents, we have an added layer of concern: how do we explain the current state of affairs to our children and provide them some sense of reassurance? While there is no magic elixir, magic wand, or secret rule book, there are a few key strategies that just might help us to decrease our children’s current worries and restore a sense of hope. 1. Be Honest As with most things, children know more than we think they do and they crave honest information. As much as I want to shelter my children from hearing about the potential bad things that could happen, now that they are in school and in sports, this is simply not a reliable option. They can potentially overhear information from an adult or directly from another child in a number of locations. When parents make the decision to provide their children with honest information, there is better control over what and how specific information is shared with their children. 2. Watch What You Say On the flip side, be mindful about what you say around children, not just around your own children, but when you are out in public. You don’t want to be that person who exposes another child to information their parents had not yet shared. 3. Consider Development Children’s emotional and cognitive capacities develop significantly throughout their childhood. Before sharing details with them, take their developmental stage into consideration. A 12 year old will want and need more specific and detailed information than a 7 year old may need. Avoid going into too much detail or overwhelming them with details. Let them guide you on how much information they need. 4. Be a Role Model Let’s face it, children learn a lot from watching their parents: the good, the bad and the ugly. Show your children that feelings like anger and frustration are normal. If you are angry, name it. Be sure to not only show your child that it is normal to feel emotions but also demonstrate acceptable ways for them to express those emotions. Avoid holding it all in and expressing it only when the children are not around. Let them in on the realness of feelings. You will be providing them a solid model for how to handle and manage life’s biggest challenges to come. 5. Reassure. Reassure. Reassure. Children need to feel safe and the adults in their lives are the ones who are tasked with that monumental responsibility. I am not advocating for you to tell your children that nothing bad will happen to them or near them ever as that would be a lie. You cannot predict the future. You can, however, point out that good stuff happens far more often than the bad stuff. Remind children of all the people and systems in place to keep them safe and all the healthy people around them. Reassure them that you would never knowingly put them in a dangerous situations. Highlight safety measures that are in place in they express fear over attending a certain event. Repeat as many times as necessary. When you think you’ve said it all enough, say it one more time. 6. Limit Media Television news, social media accounts and newspapers now provide non-stop, around the clock coverage of the virus outbreak. Pictures, video, audio clips; it’s all out there and it can quickly become too much for children. Be mindful of what children may be exposed to and consider whether it is necessary. I recall hearing accounts from 9/11 that many children interpreted the frequent replay of the plane hitting the tower as multiple planes hitting multiple buildings day after day. Even if you think your children aren’t watching the news with you or don’t see the headlines on the newspaper, think about what they may overhear from the next room or what they may see when the newspaper is left casually on a kitchen table. 7. Create an Open Dialogue Children need time to process things. It is not unusual for children to need days or even weeks to develop questions or be able to express their thoughts on difficult topics. Send your child the message that you can always find time to talk with them. Many parents have success by carving out time each night around bedtime for an opportunity for children to share their experiences, thoughts, feelings and ask questions. Some parents schedule weekly one-on-one parent/child dates at a coffee shop or fast food restaurant to connect. These conversations tend to be better received when they focus on one child at a time, rather than as a family dialogue with multiple children of various developmental stages. 8. Point Out the Positive Despite what we see on a daily basis, there are lots and lots of great things that happen locally, nationally and internationally. Seek out the good stuff and share it often with your children. Local newspapers can often be a more positive source of news, particularly for children. Highlighting the positives can also go a long way to helping children feel safe. No amount of the good stuff is too much! 9. Monitor Behavioral Changes Keep a watchful eye on your child’s behavior. Changes in sleeping and eating patterns may indicate that your child is having a hard time processing some events and information. Changes such as suddenly wetting the bed again or asking to sleep in your bed could be a normal response to stressful information. Be careful not to shame your child about changes like these. Rather, give them some time, continue to provide reassurance and keep a watchful eye. If you are concerned, reach out for support. Your child’s school, their pediatrician and local child therapists are all great resources.  (If you found this page and are interested in learning more about how to purchase Isagenix, visit my Isagenix site here.)
Many of my blog posts center around topics like grief, parenting, and relationships but three years ago I took a risk and shared that I had made the decision to pursue Isagenix as a weight-loss plan. (Click here to read the original review). Some people scoffed and rolled their eyes but many people secretly messaged me to ask for some insight around the Isagenix program. My initial detailed Isagenix review outlined the Isagenix weight loss program, the Isaganix company itself, and detailed my first week on the plan. Then, life happened and I never circled back around to close the loop on my experience with Isaganix. Three years later, while I am not where I want to be with regards to my weight or my physical health, I must admit that Isagenix has provided me with a much needed consistency. Despite a bunch of curve balls thrown my way (launching my own business and relying solely on myself for employment, 2 cancer scares, 2 surgeries, and an intense life changing diagnosis, to name just a few), the Isagenix program and products have continued to provide me with an easy way to center my life around healthy nutrition. As I sit here enjoying my Isagenix chocolate shake for lunch, it seems like it is time to give an Isagenix update! What I LOVE about Isagenix The Shakes. Isagenix protein shakes are the ONLY shakes I use. They are filling. They taste great - I do NOT like super sweet drinks so these shakes appeal to me because they are not sweet at all. They are easy to mix either in a shaker with water or with some milk product (I use almond milk) or blended with ice in my NutriBullet. The shakes work with whatever diet plan I am currently following. Due to a recent diagnosis, I have been attempting to follow a Whole Food Plant Based Diet and the Isagenix Plant-based shakes fit so nicely in with this plan. Additionally, at just 7 points per shake, they fit perfectly with the green Weight Watchers plan that I am trying to follow along with WFPB diet. Customer Service Over the past 3 years, all I have seen from the Isagenix back office is improvement. Their website and message have become more streamlined and clear. They have continued to expand upon and refine their products, adding product lines such as essential oils, skincare products, and a whole line of products specifically geared towards children. Their reimbursement and compensation for their consultants has not wavered and they continue to be one of the best MLM marketing companies out there with regards to how they treat and reward their consultants and associates. Shake Days One of the tenants of the Isagenix Diet is that you have two of their shakes each day, one healthy meal, and two healthy snacks. Following this plan is so convenient for me as a mother and therapist as my meals are often taken while driving from school to work to sporting events or in my 10 minutes between sessions with my patients. I don't have to think or do a lot of prep work. I just toss a prepackaged shake envelope into my work bag along with a shaker of water and my lunch is set. As for my "fork and knife meal" of the day (i.e. not a shake), it is really easy to toss together some protein source with some veggies and some healthy carbs for a meal around 350-500 calories. Each of the two snacks per day should be around 100-150 calories and the options are completely limitless. Cleanse Days By far one of the hardest aspects of the Isagenix program is getting accustomed to Cleanse Days. These are days where you give your body a break from heavy digestion and instead enjoy some of the specially formulated Cleanse for Life drink and carefully selected Isagenix supplements and snacks for 1 or 2 days. I cannot begin to explain how AMAZING I feel on a cleanse day. My brain fog is lifted, I've got tons of energy, and I feel healthy. Surprisingly, I never feel hungry! The new Peach Mango Cleanse for Life is one of the best drinks I have ever had! Getting through your first few cleanse days is a mental exercise. If you are thinking about trying it or struggling with that idea, feel free to reach out to me here as I'm happy to offer some support! Shipping No matter how hard I try to plan ahead, I always seem to find myself peering into my pantry and realizing I only have just a handful of shakes left. Ordering from the Isagenix website is so easy and within just a couple days, my shakes are at my doorstep. Truly only Amazon Prime ships things faster for me! What I would CHANGE about Isagenix The Cost Making that initial Isagenix purchase felt like a huge financial risk for me. But, when I actually compare the price of the program to the price of what I would spend on food at the grocery store or on take out, Isagenix really does save me money. Plus, when you choose to sign up as a consultant, you can quite easily earn enough commission each month to pay for your own Isagenix purchases. After that large initial purchase, however, I really just need to replenish items on a rolling basis each month. It's sort of like when you move to a new place and restock your essential pantry items: it's a big purchase at first but you don't actually need to buy a big container of dried basil every month or a large bottle of EVOO every week. So, big cost up front but then minimal cost moving forward! Thinking of trying Isagenix? If you are thinking about tryng the Isagenix system, I suggest you take the leap, invest in yourself, and give it a chance. You'll never know if you'll love it like I do until you try it. Read my complete review and overview of my first week on Isagenix here. (If you are interested in learning more about how to purchase Isagenix, visit my Isagenix site here.) |
Mental Health & WellnessNow, more than ever, we all need a little support to help get us through the rough spots. With all the pressures of life, it can be a challenge to find time to not only take care of yourself but also to truly understand who you even are anymore. Archives
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