Three things I have learned about myself during this Stay-at-home order due to the coronavirus:

1. Majority of my daily stress in life before this time was due to actually going to work. Waking up early (ugh), dressing up for other people (dress code), anxiety about wardrobe and looks, driving on the freeway with crazy people, interacting with people, pressure to get work done, worry about not living up to expectations, offending someone accidentally, not saying the “right” things. Now that I am working from “home” (see previous post) there isn’t any of that….if I take a shower every three days no one cares….I haven’t worn makeup in weeks…the world isn’t ending…the only interaction I have with work is by email, chat, or phone call. I feel like I can work more intentionally and clearly now without all that extra junk. Much less stress on a daily basis. Don’t have to worry so much. And I can focus on ME.
2. I need more time to rest. I didn’t realize it until now. Part of my daily stress was due to being tired and not being able to recover from the previous day. I knew I didn’t get enough sleep on a daily basis back then. When that occurred to me, I gasped! it just piles on day after day. Maybe the reasons I have a hard time handling life is because I’m stressed out and I’m stressed out because I haven’t fully recovered from the day before. I’m so rested now, my mood swings aren’t so drastic, I’m less feisty. Before this, I’d get home from work and be trying to decompress the whole evening. Every day, it wasn’t enough time until I had to wake up and do it all again.
3. I don’t want to go back to feeling all that stress and not being able to recover when work opens back up. So – I’m making a plan. I’m going to do my best to do these five things every single day: Sleep, rest, play, exercise, food. Sleep – clearly I wasn’t ever getting enough so I am going to get better at going to bed on time. Rest! In addition to getting more sleep, give myself time to hang out every day on the couch or sit on the deck watching the ducks play in the pond. Play could be learning guitar, playing solitaire on my phone, frisbee in the back yard, reading, learning to bake a cake. Exercise could be zumba class or a yoga video, walk, or bike. Food – plan out meals and snacks and learn to cook more.

What have you learned about yourself?