With everything going on now and the uncertainty and anxiety that people are feeling, I think it’s important to talk about things that you can do while you find yourself participating in social distancing.  I mentioned in my IG story that I posted over the weekend that although some people feel that everyone is going crazy and taking this too far, it doesn’t matter because decisions that are being made affect everyone regardless how people feel about it.  So today, I want to share 5 things that you can do during this unforeseen time of social distancing.

1. Give Yourself Grace

   This is the most important thing to do, so I’m spending the most time on it. Our lives are changing everyday...our norm is quickly becoming the abnorm. This means a lot of thoughts, doubts and fears are running through people’s heads.  If your children are home from school and you are working from home, don’t have negative self-talk about the type of parent you are if your kids are getting more TV or iPad time than usual. It’s difficult to care for kids while still having to work, so be kind to yourself and do whatever will keep your household running as smoothly as possible.  Also, there are so many people posting about the right way to eat. This is great information, but don’t let it stress you out. If you have food that people don’t consider healthy (could be a number of reasons including maybe all the “healthy” food was gone when you tried to buy it), don’t get down on yourself. The more important thing is that you and your family have food to eat.  So overall, give yourself grace and practice any of the following things to help try to ease your mind-

   • Limit or stop social media activity- the various amounts of real and fake news being posted is enough to make anyone’s head spin and anxiety levels skyrocket. There’s nothing wrong with keeping up with the news/status, but don’t overwhelm yourself.

   • Catch up on sleep (maybe even take some Melatonin to help you sleep deeper)

   • Have an intentionally slow, lazy morning routine

   • Read a new book or finish one you haven’t finished yet

   • FaceTime/video chat with friends and loved ones

   • Write down your thoughts and feelings

   • Listen to your favorite music that makes you smile

   • Draw, paint or even color in a coloring book

   • Meditate

   • Listen to deep sleep music

   • Get outdoor time in your backyard or take a walk and inhale deep. Cleansing breaths are awesome for the body!

   • Let the sun shine on you for a little bit

   • Scream into a pillow to let out your pent up emotions if you’re feeling the anxiety growing.

2. Regroup

   This is a good time to think about your blog/biz and consider if what you’re doing is still aligned with your main goals and objectives.  Do the products, services and info you share still truly bring you joy? Are you meeting the numbers you planned for whether it’s dollar wise, email list member wise, traffic wise, etc.? If you answered no to any of these, it’s a great time to fine-tune your strategy or maybe even totally pivot to something different.

3. Content Creation Machine

   You know those blog post drafts that you never completed? It’s a great time to go through them, see if the info in them is still good enough to complete and post or if it can just be deleted.  Also, for new blog post ideas that you have in the pipeline, go ahead and get a head start on them. Content creation can also be for social posts, email marketing, podcast episodes, IG Stories, etc.

4. Organize Behind the Scenes

   Take some time to organize and update your behind the scenes, back office things such as filing paperwork (digital files and physical paper), updating your accounting transactions, updating pages on your website or even the entire layout, etc.  Show your website some love. We always tend to deprive it, so this is a great time to give it the attention that it needs.

5. Stockpile Photos

   If you are home all day, it’s a great time to take advantage of the daylight and take lots of photos to use for your social posts, blog posts, your website, etc. Now that we also have that extra hour of daylight thanks to daylight savings time, take full advantage of the natural light as much as you can.

I hope some of these things will help you out if you don’t know what to do or you need to find something to take your mind off of all the madness going on.  The overall feeling I’m getting when looking at the feeds of the people I follow is an abundance of love, friendliness and wanting to genuinely help people. All of this is bringing us closer together in our distancing...isn’t that ironic?