How to maintain psychological comfort during self-isolation

In conditions of self-isolation, the main threat, in my opinion, is not a virus, but the consequences for the economy and psychological state. From observations in practice and personal experience, I made a list of recommendations for psychological hygiene during this period, which I adhere to myself and suggest that you consider.

1. Admit the loss

In the current circumstances, they will definitely be. Different people on different scales: from a decrease in social contacts to significant financial losses. In such a situation, sometimes you do not want to admit your own powerlessness in front of what is happening, there is an impulse to urgently compensate for losses. For example, suddenly launching a new project (which, as we think, will pay for everything with interest), investing somewhere, meeting someone and starting a relationship, and so on.

It is important to remember that we can control some small changes in the world around us, but the processes in which many peoples and states are involved are stronger and greater than the will of a particular person.

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Therefore, we have to admit powerlessness in the face of large-scale circumstances and live them together with the rest of the world, accepting the losses that accompany this situation.

It saddens, because of something it can even be bitter, but only a realistic vision of what is happening will allow you to orient yourself.

Only having survived the loss, you can find strength and understanding of where to go next in order to restore and strengthen your position. Throwing, attempts to ignore difficult circumstances, actions without orientation will likely lead to even greater losses - at least in time and effort.

2. Take a break

One of the main difficulties now is uncertainty. It is unclear how long the hard times will last and what the consequences will be. The background of the outside world becomes unstable. In such a situation, you need reliable support on your own experience, a clear position and an understanding of what is important. Stress, on the other hand, provokes acceleration, a desire to immediately do something and fence gardens.

Take a break to get your bearings. In any circumstances, there is something natural and most suitable for which it is worth spending energy.

To detect this, it is important to slow down and stop fussing. We are all in a new situation that requires new solutions. It's important to give yourself time to find them. Everyone will have their own solutions: someone will come to the conclusion that a good option for him would be read books, someone will find that at last there will be time to communicate with a husband (or wife) and a child or to take care of their physical form, and someone will understand that for once they can play enough with a computer.

3. Structure your day and week

The next few weeks have been declared non-working. For many, this is a weekend, some work remotely without a clear daily routine and management control, some have a reduced workload. If a person went to the office five days a week, went to the gym on Monday, Wednesday and Friday, and visited a psychological group a couple of times a month, now all this is temporarily closed for him. The habitual organization of life disappears.

It's important to remember that too many weekends and an unstructured day can be damaging. If you've worked hard, sleeping off for a week, watching movies, playing something is not bad. But if you don't have daily routine, you spend too much time behind the screen and neglect training and other developmental activities, then this is harmful not only for psychological health, but also for physical health.

Organize your day, make an approximate schedule: workouts, meals, work, reading, time for rest and communication with loved ones. Also, make the order in the week: make some days "work", some "days off".

This will help not only to be in good psychological shape, but also to spend time productively, not to lose the habit of work and effort, and not to lose qualifications.

4. Be attentive to your diet

Stress, fear and anxiety provoke to consume more food, including unhealthy ones. Food helps to calm down, to ground. Meanwhile overeating threatens not only overweight, but also damage to health, affects the emotional background.

It is important to look for healthier ways to find emotional balance: meditation, training, psychotherapy, communication with loved ones, reading your favorite books. And nutrition should be moderate and adequate.

5. Filter the flow of information

Regarding the situation with the coronavirus pandemic, there are good recommendations from authoritative sources (for example, WHO), to which are worth listening to, but there is also a lot of unnecessary information with an emotional boost, which can sooner destabilize.

Be attentive and critical of incoming information. Not only quality, but also quantity, because here, as with food, you can "overeat" and even "get poisoned." Try to leave 1-2 reliable sources of information, view them no more than a couple of times a day (important news does not appear more often), exclude watching TV programs in which there are a minimum of facts and a maximum of hysteria, stop googling statistics on the number of deaths from the virus and etc.

6. Keep a reasonable distance in pairs

Many self-isolate with a partner or spouse. On the one hand, this is an opportunity to be more together, to get to know each other better. On the other hand, being with the same person in a closed space for a long time is difficult in its own way.

Anxiety-panic states provoke convergence, which makes it easier to survive the attack. However, as a result, each other can be very tired.

Maintain a reasonable mental and physical distance. Try to spend some part of the day in different rooms (for example, someone in the bedroom, and another in the kitchen), communicate not only with your loved one, but also with other people (in the format of video conferencing), do something separately from partner. Defend your right to privacy and, of course, leave this opportunity to a loved one. Don't press if he wants to be alone.

If any distance is prohibited in a couple, then quarrels, scandals or parting become the only ways to "win back" personal space. To avoid this, try to spend part of the time separately, doing something of your own.

7. Respect your differences with your partner

During this period, we can find both something in common and similar between ourselves and a partner, and differences that can surprise us, scare or anger us.

Try to respect the fact that a loved one may open up from an unexpected side that you did not notice before.

For example, someone likes to get up earlier and more productive in the morning, while the other, on the contrary, is lethargic and weak in the morning, and energetic in the evening and does not sleep until late. You can do a useless thing - trying to remake each other. But it is more promising to allow everyone to live according to their own schedule and find time when both want to cross. In this case, there will be no feeling of compulsion from the relationship, and the contact with each other will become more valuable and pleasant.

8. Use conflict to develop relationships

Most likely, in joint self-isolation, you will have conflicts. Our differences in opinions, positions, ways of reacting to a situation are a common reason for their appearance. Treat conflicts as inevitable and even rewarding.

Relationships are a system that needs balance. If people in a couple go to extremes, then a conflict arises - this is a reaction to an imbalance.

The couple, as it were, begins to rock the boat in which they are sailing, as each is trying to row in his direction.

For example, one of the partners reacts too violently to a difficult situation, starts something in a hurry undertake, and the other, on the contrary, becomes more passive, too careless about the situation and underestimates the risks. A conflict of interest arises, and this conflict situation: the first will demand to fuss with him, make some decisions, and the second will say something like “Don't worry, forget it”, “Nothing depends on us”.

Such a clash of positions can be useful, since in the course of the discussion, partners will allow each other to see these extremes, which each one falls into. The couple will be able to balance: one will slow down, become calmer, and the other will activate a little more and will react to the situation accordingly. As a result, each of them will stop pulling the blanket over themselves and the partners will find the optimal, comfortable way for both to overcome the difficult period.

Just don't confuse conflict with quarrel. In a conflict, there is always a discussion, and a quarrel is just a release of tension through shouts, insults, breaking dishes and so on.

9. Watch your appearance

If we practically stop showing ourselves in public, then the motivation to look good becomes less. And here you can relax too much.

A pleasant appearance makes you take care of your health and nutrition, affects our mood. Therefore, I recommend that you be attentive to how you look, even if you are self-isolating alone.

This will help you to be more collected and tidy, not to lose good habits. If you are with your partner, then it will be much more pleasant for him to be around and look at you, in addition, he will have an incentive to look good too.

10. Improve your qualifications

The crisis is not only about losses, but also opportunities. Someone uses this period to strengthen themselves professionally, while others, on the contrary, will lose their skills. Self-isolation will end sooner or later, and your relevance as a specialist will depend on how you spend this time.

Find Growth Opportunities: Read professional literature or go through online courses, write articles on specialized topics, communicate with colleagues. If you can work remotely, but your clients are experiencing temporary financial difficulties, consider an option when where you can provide your services for free or at a big discount: you will get experience and connections that will come in handy after.

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Most likely, many of the recommendations will seem obvious and intuitive to you. Nevertheless, sometimes it is useful to remind yourself and others of the obvious things - they are forgotten the fastest during a stressful period.

Remember this situation is not permanent. And the quality of our life in the future will depend on how we live through the period of self-isolation and what we take out of it.