As we all know, rushing around creates stress and tension.
For the last 100 years, the hustle and bustle has been our way of life. It has been not only expected but rewarded. The busier you are, the more you ‘hustle’, the more you advance your career, right?
Right now, countries are loosening up lockdowns and people worldwide are slowly getting back to business as usual. We are slowly emerging from quarantine and returning to work, social engagements, and all the trappings of modern society.
For a lot of people, this is causing anxiety.
Not just because of the risk of getting sick but also because they are worried about returning to a rushed state of being. You might find yourself questioning the lifestyle you’re returning to.
Ask yourself:
Is this what I want to be doing?
Am I ready to get back into this high pace lifestyle again?
Although this time of stress and anxiety is specific to the current virus outbreak, it’s not uncommon to feel ‘blah’ when returning to work after a time away, like for the holidays or a vacation. There’s even a term for it, “Post-Vacation Blues”. While the typical advice for dealing with this is to just push through it and keep going, that isn’t always the best path to take.
As we are adjusting to our new normal, we have to be careful, easy, and gentle with ourselves.
During this time of transition, many companies are continuing to support people who want to work virtually, universities are considering online learning, and quite a few parents are planning to homeschool moving forward.
What we are seeing is a shift in the paradigm. We have the opportunity to embrace this new way of life. Worldwide, more and more people are taking the chance to create a new lifestyle for themselves and their families.
If the fast-paced, stress-filled rat race lifestyle was working for you, there will still be a place for that.
You can certainly recreate that moving forward. However, over the past three months, many people have found that they take better care of themselves when they have more downtime. They are eating healthier, exercising more, spending more quality time with their family, and even catching up on their reading and writing. They’ve explored hobbies they never had time for before, started gardens, learned a new language, taken up painting – all while working from home in a much more relaxed way.
The good news is, this time has given the experts a chance to analyze productivity and they’ve found that people have been more productive while working from home. With less time commuting, fewer meetings (well except for the numerous Zoom calls), and fewer distractions from co-workers, people are getting more done in less time and with less stress.
If we rush back into our old routines and the old mentality of the rat race, we may have the tendency to fall back into our old habits. Before you rush back into the daily grind, take some time to journal about your experience over the last few months:
What are you grateful for?
What have you learned about yourself?
What have you learned about your family?
What can you take from the last few months and integrate into your ‘new normal’?
What can you do to keep what you want to incorporate into your new daily routine and what can you let go of moving forward?
Like all times of change, this may feel like chaos.
Times of chaos and upheaval are times for making choices and shifts to your way of life.
By having this time of solitude, we’ve been given the chance to have a better perspective on what’s really important to us. And with the evolving acceptance for working remotely, we have the opportunity to recreate the way our life looks and feels.
It’s time to reflect on how you can be a better version of yourself and create a daily routine that works. By recreating the way we live our life, we have the chance to challenge ourselves – what do I really want? Sometimes people don’t want to ask themselves that question or rather they’re afraid. But when we face our fears, the outcome is always better than expected.
We’ve been given this amazing opportunity to create a daily routine that works for us and makes sense in our lives. Why not take it? It can be scary but once you succeed with one tiny shift in your life – the next will come easily and effortlessly!
How to start a new routine
Whenever you are returning to your routine after some time away, it may seem like an overwhelming task. But there are ways of returning to normal that will not be as stressful. Recommit to your schedule and start with one step at a time. If you aim too high, it will be difficult to maintain consistency and motivation for the long term. So pick something small: maybe waking up 15 minutes earlier than before or getting yourself ready at earlier times than normal.
Take some time to think about what made you want to take a break in the first place. Oftentimes people just need to recharge their batteries and enjoy life without the stress of work for a while. If this is the case, then don’t hurry back into your old routine. Instead of getting back into things right away, try easing back in with a few hours a day at first or taking a part-time job. You might find that after a few weeks of being away from work, you’re much less inclined to go back full.
Here are 8 actionable steps to starting a new routine:
- Decide what needs to be in your routine. Do you want to get more exercise or more alone time?
- Set small goals. Break each large goal into smaller goals.
- Layout a plan.
- Be consistent with time.
- Be prepared
- Make it fun by doing something you’d enjoy.
- Track your progress.
- Reward yourself.
Your old habits are a thing of the past now as keeping up a routine catered to you leaves no room for previous ignorances. Implementing a new routine might be hard at first but after a while, you’ll start to see progress in life and in your mind. Make sure you remember to keep a clear objective in mind when working on your new normal routine. As you start to build your new self and routine, remember that there is no such thing as right or wrong. exercising is a good way to alleviate stress while also following a healthy lifestyle.
There are many other healthy habits you can use in your new routine to help better your way of living.
- eating a healthy diet.
- getting regular exercise.
- not smoking.
- staying at a healthy weight.
- limiting alcohol consumption.
Until next time!
Dr. Asha Prasad
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