The UK has recently introduced to a 3-tiered monitoring system for COVID, with Tier 1 being the less threatened zone and Tier 3 being the worst. London is currently in Tier 2 meaning pubs, restaurants, gyms, and some tourist attractions such as museums are allowed to remain open but we are under a 10pm curfew, unable to mix with other households and hardly able to travel as most towns and smaller cities are at a higher tier or are banning unnecessary travel.
When the pandemic first hit, I was actually doing okay. I took it as a moment to breathe and get present with myself. I feel like I had had hit the ground running since moving here last June (2019) and had been stuck in survival mode. The first lockdown allowed me to finally slow down, connect with myself, count my blessings and assess my own health mentally and physically. It did get quite taxing when we were only allowed to have 1 hour of outdoor activity each day, and not leaving my apartment or my neighbourhood made it difficult to get out of be most mornings. However, I feel I powered through it quite well by getting back in touch with my creative side and saw this as a very strange summer vacation.
This time around, with more availability to experience life outside my home bubble, yet still feeling bogged down sometimes by the unknown of the future or getting cabin fever stuck at home most days - I thought I’d share with you my tried and true proven tips to manage stress and anxiety during a second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Reduce Caffeine Intake
This is a biggie, especially for all women out there, listen up: caffeine affects your hormones. Big time. It increases cortisol which affects insulin and blood sugar in the body, as well as affecting our oestrogen levels. When these go out of whack, we are more prone to breakouts, mental fogginess, depression and all kinds of mental and physical imbalances. I’ve experienced this first hand so can speak from experience.
So whenever I feel depressive emotions or mental fogginess rise, I know I need to cut down on caffeine and pay attention to reducing my stress levels. Reducing caffeine looks different for everyone, I usually only drink one cup of coffee a day so I know that I need to either eliminate it all together or substitute with green tea or a coffee alternative. I’ve also become quite fond of Assam tea which is a black tea filled with antioxidants (when not adding milk, of course) that I’ll sometimes add raw honey and lemon to, or will go for green tea or a matcha latte that doesn’t over stimulate me and cause me to go out of balance.
Prioritise morning movement and meditation
This sounds so cliche but it’s a tried and true effective method. When I get my meditations and a proper workout done in the morning before breakfast, my day is instantly improved. It’s especially effective if I’m sitting a lot that day and know I won’t feel up for a workout later.
I’m also one of those people that didn’t make an excuse to gain the “lockdown” 15 and have actually lost weight since the lockdown (cue double hands up emoji) so also prioritising healthy eating and mindful eating is also a big step in the right direction.
Find 20 minute meditations you can do at anytime
When I’m feeling unaligned, uninspired and unmotivated, I meditate. Even if that’s 2’o clock in the afternoon and I “should” be working. If something is feeling off, I’ve been more disciplined with taking 20 minutes out of my day to meditate as many times as I need to to feel aligned with myself again. I’ve favourited a couple 10-20 minute meditations on YouTube that I like to use at any time of day to re-ground and centre myself. I find that picking your favourite meditations is very personal and everyone has their own preference to how to do it, who to listen to and what to do. I am currently personally loving anything with Dr. Joe Dispenza.
Take the morning or afternoon off
This was actually really hard for me to do when the first lockdown happened. I felt anxious thinking that if I wasn’t doing something all day, especially during the week, I was failing myself and I wouldn’t be prepared for when the lockdown lifted. Oh how little I knew.
These days, if I don’t have anything particularly pressing to finish and I feel my mental health taking a toll, I’ll take the morning or afternoon off to head out to a cafe somewhere in London, maybe hit up a museum or just chill out with a book or a show. We are humans, not machines, and sometimes need to shut off temporarily to reset our systems. I’m constantly in “entrepreneurial” mode, always trying to figure out the latest thing to do or the newest, innovative way to create, and frankly it’s exhausting. I think there’s also something energetically with being a woman that I can’t always have my masculine “on and go go go” mental hat on. I need to ease into my feminine nature and take it slow every so often, especially around that time of the month…
Be a tourist in your own city
This is a new and fun one to me. As I said earlier, I hit the ground running since moving to London and I didn’t allow myself to be a tourist. “I’m a Londoner” I would affirm strongly and proudly, and I guess that meant I couldn’t enjoy the city and my accomplishment for getting here. I wish I could shake past me some sense. Since the first lockdown lifted and restaurants, pubs, museums and life in general began to open back up - I took full advantage. Riding my bike to different parks, getting on trains for day trips to outside towns, booking (free) tickets to museums, I’ve been having a blast! That is, when I do it consistently. I’m now giving myself once or twice a week to be a tourist in London and enjoy the beauty and history of this city. My favourite place to go is Tower Bridge, where there is of course it’s infamous bridge, the historic Tower of London, a gorgeous walk along the Thames, but my favourite is the Starbucks where I made the final decision I was changing my life for the better and moving here.