Could COVID-19 be Helping Some of us Get Healthier?

​How are you all holding up during this time, the era of COVID-19?
 
Clearly these “shelter-in-place” orders are necessary, as hard as they can be to abide by. Health reporter Donald McNeil of the NY Times wrote over the weekend, “If it were possible to wave a magic wand and make all Americans freeze in place for 14 days while sitting six feet apart, epidemiologists say, the whole epidemic would sputter to a halt.”
 
We are all beginning to feel a bit of cabin fever, not to mention worrying about the economic impacts. Putting that aside for a moment, how are you dealing with your life’s routine being disrupted?

Are you still taking care of yourself?
How are you doing in the realm of physical activity when it rains outside or the gym is closed?
How is your sleep when you don’t have a work schedule to adhere to?
How well are you eating when the stores may not have exactly what you were looking or in stock?
 
Some people will be stuck, saying “I can’t do this because I can’t do it my usual way.”
 
Some people will respond by slowing down and pondering how they can find new ways to adapt. “If I can’t do this, then I can do that.”
 
In other words, those who will thrive at extreme times like this, and really even once we get back to normal, are those who welcome the opportunity and challenge to do something different.
 
What I hear from friends, family, colleagues and clients alike, is that those people who are managing the best now that daily life as we know it has completely changed, are the group who are not only willing, but interested in seeing what they can do differently to live at least as well if not even better. I see some bad habits, such as the daily Starbucks, falling away. I hear about trying new methods and modes of exercise. I also hear that people are getting more and better quality sleep than they had in a long time. Social connections are also being made in a more meaningful way, since social contact - whether virtual or face-to-face - now must be deliberate and intentional.
 
Some people are even finding new ways to manage their urinary frequency, motivated by the necessity of conserving toilet paper!
 
Although this time will not last forever, and will have many difficult and long-lasting impacts on our life as the fog of coronavirus lifts, in a way it may be just what some of us needed. It has triggered just the right shake-up to our well-worn routines, some of which were already obsolete but hard to let go.
 
What have you changed/ let go of/ started to do differently in the past week, that you can see becoming a lasting part of your “new normal” life?

Reach out and let me know what's on your mind. Even while separated, let's find the silver lining in this pandemic together.