Coronavirus. A.K.A. COVID-19. Are you tired of hearing about it yet? I know I am.
Yet, I can’t keep myself away from all of the coverage of it. In the mornings, I listen to the news while I drink my coffee and warm up for my workout. Throughout the day, I keep refreshing my local news websites to check the latest numbers in my area. Every email I’ve sent at work for the past few days has started with, “I hope you’re staying safe and healthy amidst all of the coronavirus concerns.”
It’s a weird time, for sure. Even for someone like me who’s on the far end of the introversion spectrum, not seeing anyone other than my husband for the past week is already starting to make me feel a little stir-crazy. I’ve also been struggling a lot with anxiety issues for the past year or so, and this certainly isn’t helping. But that’s a topic for a different day.
For now, I’m trying to stay positive throughout this whole ordeal and do different things to keep my anxiety at bay. One of those things is to remind myself of what I’m grateful for during this time of isolation and worry. Another is to return to some of the hobbies that I used to love that I haven’t been able to prioritize lately – with writing being at the top of that list. Then I figured, why not just do both?
So here I am at my laptop, finally using it again for something other than online shopping or creating a Google spreadsheet with a new lifting program, presenting to you seven things I’m grateful for in the midst of a crisis:
1. Extra time with my husband.
He works in New York City, has to leave early in the morning to catch a train, and doesn’t get home until after 7:30 at night. Once he’s home, it’s usually just a quick dinner, clean up, and then I go to bed because I wake up at 4am to workout. Now that we’re both working from home, we have a lot more time to spend with each other. We’re also able to work in two different areas in the house, which makes it easier – if we were forced to be sitting next to each other all day every day, I think we’d have a much more difficult time dealing with the situation!
2. More walks with my dog Charlie.
(Remember, going out for walks is still advised, as long as you keep a safe distance from others!) I know it’s important, but getting my dog out for walks during the week isn’t always easy. Now that my husband and I are home all day, we’ve been able to walk him every single day once we’re done working. It’s nice because 1. We get fresh air and can stretch our legs after being inside the house all day 2. It tires Charlie out so he’s not driving us nuts all the time. We quickly learned that if we don’t walk him, he’ll beg us for attention all day long! He’s cute, but his pouting definitely starts to get old after about, oh, twenty seconds. (Parents of children, I seriously wish you all the best right now.)
3. Extra sleep.
It sucks that gyms aren’t open, but in addition to all of the at-home workouts all over social media right now, I have my garage gym that I can workout in. And, since I don’t have to drive to the gym early in the morning and then rush to get ready for work afterwards, I’ve been able to get at least 7.5 hours of sleep, if not 8, compared to the 6ish I usually get. The extra sleep has been glorious, and it also means my workouts have been feeling great too!
4. More time to get things done around the house.
I’m not talking about a huge renovation, but just simple things like putting laundry away, emptying the dishwasher, and cleaning the bathroom – things that really don’t take a lot of time to do, but are the last things I want to do after a long day of work, working out, taking care of my pets, spending some quality time with my husband, and making dinner. It’s been nice being able to squeeze in a few extra minutes of household chores so I can feel like I actually have my life together even though the world is crazy right now.
5. Having food for myself, my husband, and my pets.
We were pretty fortunate to be able to stock up on groceries before shit really hit the fan. It has been requiring us to rush to the supermarket at 8am on a Saturday morning, but I’m grateful that we have food to last us several days. We were also able to get plenty of food for our pets. It would be one thing if I was unable to eat, but there’s no way I’d let my animals go without food. I feel lucky that we don’t have to worry about that right now.
6. My job.
Things at my job aren’t always easy, but I’m grateful that I still have a steady paycheck and can work remotely. I know this isn’t the case right now for a lot of other people, and I’ll be honest, I’ve wondered a few times how worried I need to be about job security. But for right now, I’m taking solace in the fact that I’m still able to work.
7. My health and my family’s health.
As I’m writing this, I’m still healthy, my family members are still healthy, and my husband and his family are still healthy. It makes me sad that I haven’t been able to physically see them, but we keep in touch and so far, everyone’s still doing well. Whew!
So there you have it. I’ve been repeating this list to myself whenever I start to feel anxious about everything going on in the world, and it does help. I could write about my own tips for maintaining a consistent workout and nutrition plan while working from home, or talk about other things that I’m doing to manage my anxiety right now. But honestly, I don’t feel as though I have anything new to share other than what’s already been said hundreds of times – remember to get up and move throughout the day, set up your workspace far away from where you keep your snacks, remember to slow down and breathe, try meditation, and so on. Not that these aren’t fabulous suggestions, but for my first blog post in two years, I wanted it to feel more personal and not quite so generic.
I know it may be hard right now, but try to find at least one thing you’re grateful for each day, no matter how big or small it is. It could be a cup of coffee that your significant other made you this morning, or it could be something grander. But there is always, always, something to be thankful for even when the world feels scary and confusing. Stay safe and don’t lose sight of what’s truly important right now!
