5 Habits that I cultivated in Lockdown

“Life’s challenges are not supposed to paralyze you; they’re supposed to help you discover who you are.” ~ Bernice Johnson Reagan

Covid-19 has been one of the biggest challenges the humanity has faced, yet in a positive way it has given us opportunity to reflect and take stock of things. It has given me an opportunity to look at life and situations from a different perspective. Looking at life from a new angle or as my life coach says reframing is all that is needed to help us overcome our barriers and act as a springboard to leap to the next level thereby raising the bar. Every situation has silver linings. It is up to us how we look at it.

We’ve been told time and again that our minds are far more powerful than we can imagine.  But when life gets complicated, we become emotionally weak and paralyzed. This time it was different for me and today I am going to share how Covid-19 has helped me cultivate healthy and sustainable habits. It has helped me reconnect with myself.

5 Habits that I cultivated in the Lockdown:

1.Priortising Health and Fitness

Like majority, my life was running with no stop/breather. The virus has been a wakeup call. Suddenly there were talks all around that one way to defeat virus is building immunity.

The first thing I changed was healthy and mindful eating. Focusing on nutrition, well balanced diet with strict meal timings. I have my breakfast at 8:30am,lunch at 12pm and dinner at 6:30pm. The result I am leaner, with more energy and focus.

Embraced physical fitness like never before. Taking part in online challenges overcoming my limitations and blocks to achieve what seemed impossible, there by building physical immunity which probably saved me from getting virus when my Dad came out positive in the month of August and everyone was expecting my results to be positive.

2.Starting a hobby

Doodling and writing has been a revelation and therapeutic. Till date I have made more than 200 bookmarks,100 plus doodles and written 25 plus blog posts.

With no entertainment options outside the house, I focused all my energies on doodling and writing. To hone my doodling and writing skills attended online workshops once a week or whenever good opportunity came. Meeting like-minded individuals in these virtual meet ups was added bonus.

3.Organise my Digital Space

This was a God Send opportunity to organize my digital space on work and personal front to make my life easy. I tried following Marie Kondo way, the Japanese way of decluttering and tidying up my digital space.

Result my productivity has gone up and work process is smooth. Decluttering has many benefits.

·      Reduce Stress and Anxiety.

·      Saves time in search

·      Boost Productivity and Creativity.

·      Discover Lost Treasures.

4.Reading-I am avid reader but lately was facing challenges with reading. With digital distractions galore most of us are facing issues with focus. I am no different. During the lockdown started making conscious efforts to rebuild focus. Started applying my lockdown learning Pomodoro technique while reading.

The technique uses a timer to break down work into intervals, traditionally 25 minutes in length, separated by short breaks. The focused reading sessions were powerful and useful in building focus using this technique.

Let me take you through the steps to incorporate it in any daily task:           

• Choose a task you like to get done           
• Set Pomodoro for 25 minutes        
• Work on the task until Pomodoro rings     
• When Pomodoro rings, put a check mark on a paper       
• Take a short break for 5 minutes   
• Repeat this cycle 4 times

5.Maintaining a gratitude journal

The news around us has been more than often depressing. Many lives have been disrupted and lost due to pandemic. Rather than feeling depressed, helpless and upset about the trying times, I started keeping gratitude journal to write down all that I was grateful for. It helped me counter stress, isolation, loneliness and uplifted my life condition.

The biggest learning and realization for a perfectionist ‘ME’ was When you want to instill a salubrious habit, focus should be on regularity as opposed to perfection. Consistency is more important. Form will follow.

No matter how disciplined you are, interruptions are inevitable. I have accepted this and I am less harsh on occasional lapses. Accepted that frustrations and disappointments are inevitable when I am trying to induce any form of change.