Feeling Stressed? Stick to a Schedule

It’s an unprecedented time! And, yes, there’s tons of uncertainty and lots of questions right now. Our normal has been disrupted like never before. But that doesn’t mean we have to change who we are. It’s time to adapt! Here are some useful tips that might help you feel better.

Build and Stress Management and Resiliency Plan
With or without a COVID-19 pandemic, the best way to maintain mental wellness and build resiliency is to have a stress management and resiliency plan.

Like building physical strength and stamina, building mental strength and resiliency requires a commitment, a plan that includes setting aside time to do it, and trying out a variety of different exercises until you have a ‘toolkit” that works for you. Like physical exercise, you want to build core strength and have a variety of different things that work for you that you can cycle through so you don’t get bored.

Make Time for Self-Care
When the world is upside down and there are multiple demands on our time and attention, it’s easy to put everything else – including looking after other people – ahead of self-care.

But really stressful times are when we most need to take the time to practice self-care. So, make the choice to take back that control. Make time to take care of yourself so that you stay strong for yourself and others for the long-haul. We’ll talk more about that in future.

Structure Your Time and Follow a Schedule
In normal everyday life, when you have a job or go to school, you have a schedule and a pace to your life. Because of COVID-19 your schedule has been severely disrupted and you are probably feeling a little lost.

But people like routines. A few days on a beach at an all-inclusive resort without a schedule can be great but, after a few days, most people start to settle into a routine. They also start to get restless and bored, which is on the way to being depressed and anxious, so they start look for interesting things to do and make plans to participate in scheduled activities.

It’s okay to be unscheduled for a few days, but after more than that you need to set up a routine in order to stay healthy.

Set a schedule for when you wake up and go to sleep, when you work, eat, play, exercise, relax and connect with others. Try to create a schedule that resembles your pre-COVID life with more time for connecting with others and more time for self-care. Follow the schedule on weekdays but make sure that you add punctuation like “movie night,” “Taco Tuesday” and a weekend break.

Act Like the Normal You
It feels good to not shower, and to lounge around in sweatpants and a hoodie for a few days. However, after a few days it’s better for your mental health if you start to act like you did when life was normal.

If you normally went to sleep at 11:00, woke up at 7:00, walked the dog, had breakfast and a shower, got dressed and combed your hair before starting your work day, then start doing that again. You will feel better. If you act normal, you will start to feel more normal.

Schedule Your Sleep
Try to maintain a regular sleep schedule, especially in times of stress.

Some people need more sleep and some people need less but we all need a regular sleep schedule, so try to go to bed and get up at about the same time every day, based on the number of hours of sleep that you need to feel refreshed and alert when you wake up.

If you don’t suffer from chronic Insomnia, then it’s very okay to stay up later and sleep in longer on the weekends and maybe even have a nap during the day, from time to time. However, maintaining a healthy sleep schedule is key to mental wellness and resiliency. Chronic sleep dysregulation is a very well-worn path to mood and anxiety problems.

Set Goals and Make Plans
Setting goals and making plans to reach them is “core work” for stress management. Making plans provides structure, and setting and reaching a goal feels good.

Have a plan for the day, week and month. Practice setting daily, weekly and monthly goals. Make them reachable and workable. Set goals that include work, chores, relationships, family, pleasure, hobbies, fitness and other self-care.

For sure, COVID-19 may change some of your goals but find some new goals to set and reach. Maybe now is a good time to pick up that guitar that has been sitting in that closet for five years, eat better, take a business course online, start practicing yoga with an online teacher or work towards being able to run 10 km or do 100 push ups or pull ups.