How to Balance Relationships and Being at Home During the Pandemic?

First of all, I would like to celebrate that this is our post #100!

Now, let’s get into business. One of our readers asked me if I could talk about how to balance relationships while being at home during the pandemic. I believe the answer depends on each one of us, meaning, your particular needs and possibilities.

Let’s start with being at home. In several countries, quarantine has become mandatory again or there are new restriction measures. In other places, it’s possible to go out freely. Whether you can go out or not, I imagine you still spend a great deal of time at home.

As you may know, even before the pandemic, I’ve been working from home. Being here, therefore, isn’t new to me. Certainly, I would go out every now and then, but I still spent most of the day within my four walls. In my case, I’ve always enjoyed this, but I understand we are all different.

The important thing here is what we do we our day. For example, I’ve heard people say they now find themselves eating all the time while at home. Anxiety? Comfort and proximity to food?

I you respect your three meals, if you eat enough — your calorie needs, no more no less — , and if you have one or two snacks in between, you could reduce the temptation to your constant eating. You see, if you follow the three steps above, you shouldn’t be hungry; therefore, the easier it could be to keep your cravings at bay.

If you invest time among work, hobbies and leisure, you’re helping your mind keep a healthier and better balance. This will allow you to better handle stress and anxiety.

So, even when I enjoy being at home, and truth to be told, I can’t complain, it’s also true that I miss the freedom of having possibilities, options. Knowing you can go out without worrying about getting infected, even if you decide not to go out, clearly changes the game. However, we’ve got to do the best with what we can.

Balance… how does it look like? In my opinion:

1. Diversity of activities throughout the day, whether you spend 24 hours at home or go out.

• Not everything is work, and not everything is leisure.
• Practice hobbies, feed your mind.
• Limit your responsibilities. There’s cleaning to do? Yes, but it’s not the end of the world if you don’t clean everything at once or you spare yourself a day.
• Don’t like exercising? If you’re not going out and spend all day sitting or lying down, well, that doesn’t sound like a good recipe for good health. Get up every 25 minutes and stretch your legs. Try to find an activity you like that requires movement. You’ve got to move, so find something to make it happen. Our organs need that movement. Our digestive system needs that movement in order to process food. Your mind needs that movement to release stress.

2. Growth attitude

• Less complaints, more action.
• Allow yourself to feel however you feel, and when you’re ready, move on. You have more power than you think.

3. Nourish Relations Worth Nourishing

• If you have access to technology, then it can be on your side. We all have different social needs. I don’t like for my well-being to rely on others. Hence, I find important to balance keeping in touch with the people I care about, and giving them and myself some space, too. Again, each of us has particular needs and possibilities. We are social beings, so we need to be in touch with others, and not only with our closest circles, but also with strangers. According to research, for example, our interactions with the cashier lady or the concierge are also important to our happiness. There are even apps and quarantine chats to allow people to interact with strangers.

Conclusion:

It’s up to you to find your balance. It’s up to you how you face and react to your particular challenges. There is always an option. You just have to search for it. And once you find it, then do something about it. Why bother if you’ll end up with empty words, right? All you need is to take a smell step, and then, the universe will conspire to help you out.

Ask yourself, what you like to do, what you can do, what options are available to you, how you can help yourself. Are you going to choose to look at the glass as half-empty, or half-full?