It’s pretty easy to have a ‘blah’ day lately being stuck in quarantine. Not having the freedom to run simple errands or go play at a playground are amazingly impactful on mental health. Not to mention that so many of us, Nathan and I included, are trying to balance working from home and caring for a very active toddler.

The truth is that there are whole days that I’m just in a real funk about it, and I don’t think I’m alone in that feeling. A new piece of news comes out: lockdowns are extended, the peak of this virus hasn’t happened yet in our state like they thought it would, we may be living a life something similar to this for a year until there is a vaccine. It’s so easy to just get weighed down. And if I’m honest, there are days where I find myself there. Just bummed.

I do find, though, that even those days when the news is not good when hope seems hard to find, that engaging in certain habits does dramatically improve my day and outlook. Here’s what I’m doing to stay sane, and I’d love to hear how you all are doing to keep yourself out of the funk during this weird time!

Sticking to a Schedule/Routine

During the week, I find that I do better when I stick to a routine. Getting up early and having my quiet/alone time, getting in a workout before the boys get up. Then during the day, having set time periods that I work, when I play with Harrison, inclusive of types of activities like art or outside, really helps me feel a sense of calm during the day. It keeps me from going down a rabbit hole of just working non-stop, or struggling to come up with what to do with Harrison. There are days for sure that we don’t have a routine, but during the work week, I try my best to stick with it. I wrote about what our typical day during quarantine looks like HERE.

Get Some Exercise

I can feel my body just drag the entire day, inclusive of my mind, when I don’t get a work out in first thing in the morning. I’ve been a looooong early morning work out person, and the days that I don’t get my booty out of bed and do something to get my blood pumping, oof, I can feel it. If you think about it, just going to work, getting up to talk to co-workers, running errands – the way your life used to look was more active than it likely naturally is staying home all day. So it makes sense that my body is craving the physical activity even more now.

Get Outside

Ohhhh. The days that are cold and rainy this spring are really hitting me harder this year than ever before. Getting outside with a toddler means more things for him to explore and do, which is a huge win. What it does for my mood just feeling the sunshine makes a difference in my mental state.

Delineating the Weekend

Remember when you were SOOOOO excited for Friday to be here and all of the fun plans you had for the weekend? Yeah, me too. And now Friday just kind of feels like the middle of the week. Trying to do something special or different to help delineate and have something to look forward to on the weekend has really helped us. For us, that means cooking egg sandwiches on the weekend and watching cartoons in the morning. We’ve also been trying to on Friday or Saturday night, a night that we would have normally gone out to dinner as a family, gone ahead and ordered carry out from a favorite local restaurant. It’s a treat for us not having to cook or eat leftovers again, and helps an industry that is greatly suffering from the virus.

What’s been your go to’s this quarantine to keep in a positive mindset during the day?