Self-Care Tips from Cowichan Hospice Bereavement Services Coordinator, Lisa de Lusignan
Stress: A challenging circumstance intersecting with the belief that you will not be able to manage. We have been conditioned to believe that life will unroll in a predictable way. Now we have been thrown a curveball that literally changes every day, our sense of security is challenged. It is human nature to crave predictability, yet certainty in life is an illusion.
Here are some things you can do to help yourself live with uncertainty:
- Check-in with what this circumstance brings up for you. Sadness, lack of a sense of belonging, helplessness, grief, anger, anxiety, irritability?
- Ask yourself, what this situation is forcing you to look at in yourself or change?
- Pay attention to your aversion to that change.
- Talk to someone and ask for support.
- Ask others how they are doing.
- Remember other times when you felt like this and how you got through it.
- Be patient with yourself, this situation is unprecedented, of course, it might be difficult!
- Be kind to yourself, spoil yourself with things that feel good.
- Watch the mind that wants to see all the things you can’t do.
- Set a daily schedule for yourself.
- Get outside as much as possible, exercise.
- Remind yourself that we are all in this together, the whole world is in sameness right now…What does that feel like to you?
- Help someone else.
- Read, create, write, cook, organize, learn how to meditate and limit news and social media.
- Watch a good comedy and have some laughs!
- What would you be thinking about if you weren’t focusing on COVID-19?Focus on the next best thing to do today.
- Ask for support. Someone out there is just waiting to help someone!
