The invasion of Covid-19 into our lives resulted in a slew of changes in our lifestyle that are only becoming more burdensome. No longer do we travel to the office; gyms and libraries are closed, cafes and restaurants are out of bounds, social gatherings are off, and most of us have found ourselves with quite a lot of time to spare.
Now staying in and distancing yourself from others could – just could – be detrimental to health. Physical activity has declined perceptibly, anxiety may have increased by degrees, and these could have given rise to unhealthy habits. To prevent that, it is advisable to employ some simple measures to ensure staying on a healthy path while the sad situation lasts.
Exercise
The primary thing to ensure your physical (and mental) health during this Covid-19 infested period is always minding your exercises.
While gyms are just so many closed doors, go online, find workouts you will like, and get busy in your room. By the way, you can learn and try some new kinds of workout that you haven’t tried before, suiting it to your present energy level. If you prefer it this way, there are instructors who live-stream training courses.
Those who don’t shut themselves in can add jogging or running outside.
Sleep well and enough
If you sit down at a Netflix show or a movie at the end of the day, mind that you can sit up late immersed; meanwhile, the importance of getting your sleep for full 8 hours and more mustn’t be ignored. Don’t neglect your chance to stay well-energized and clear-thinking during the working day.
Read books or e-books
Among the available hobbies for mental health reading easily comes first, both for usefulness and accessibility.
Opening a well-chosen book (or e-book) can help you escape from your surroundings and take you to far-away places and to situations you are unlikely to encounter near the place you live. It can make a really wonderful change.
Need advice how to set about it? Check out this list of the books everyone should read at least once in their lifetime.
If you get interested enough, engage your friends in discussing plots and authors, or find a lively online forum.
Play real board games
You are not home alone? Quarantined with you are relatives, roommates, or friends? The situation is ripe for board games. Starting with the better-known ones, you can go deeper and discover new games that you may find captivating. Learning new rules and exploring new excitements will also keep your brain working away at full speed.
Practice digital detox regularly
When you are not working and not on the go, you can lay off your online social life and stay away from your gadgets for a spell on a regular basis. Yes, social sites keep you up-to-date with your friends and life in general, and you need your online messengers – but not all day long.
While you are at home with your nearest and dearest, it is a great chance to give them your care and attention and see that your home is running smoothly. Make sure you lead an active life at home away from media and get engaged in a lot of healthier habits.
Try new arts and crafts
We may have a vague notion that crafts and arts is something belonging to childhood and schooling, not quite compatible with adulthood. Yet you can rediscover its pleasures and take up useful crafts like knitting, or whip up your creativity with paints. Simply drawing a comic for the kids can make your and their lives brighter and more exciting.
Learn a language
Probably you have already been experiencing a void where you felt the lack of a foreign language – well, it’s a great time to get busy at it! Go online and search for ways to start on it without incurring extra expenditure, and once you have launched the project, you may find yourself familiar with the language and proceeding happily in a very short time.
The expert opinion has it that your key to a new language is a 100% involvement for a set time, and quarantine offers you the very opportunity for implementing it. Give yourself a couple of weeks – maybe with a partner – and see for yourself what a good idea it may be.
Start DIY projects
If you ever caught yourself looking through Pinterest projects and wondering how people find time to do it – well, here comes your chance to make other people think the same about what you came up with! Pinpoit an interest, find suitable tutorials, purchase your materials, and here you are set with a new exciting occupation feeling happy that you don’t get distracted.
Dance
How long has it been since you shook your tail feather last? Get up from your recumbent posture, see what you can find on YouTube or TikTok (oh, it can be a dance cardio video, if you‘re into it!), and treat yourself to an energy boost. It can give you an easy change from the routine or an easy way to shake off fatigue and get back to work fired up enough to impress others with your creativity or productivity. Put in singing along for best measure, and you might find it a bright spot of the day – as well as your partner/kids!
We will have you know that a study in the Scandinavian Journal of Medicine & Science in Sports dealing with mature women points out that the dancing habit lowers the disability risk by more than 70%. Dancing is proven to be very good for balance, endurance, and strength, also enhancing your cognitive ability. And if you have athletic aspirations, it will serve as extra training.
