We recently sat down (virtually) with local mental health coach and owner of The Kollective Ko., Katie Kovaleski, to get her top five tips for maintaining a clear head as we wade through this shitstorm mess together. Here’s what she said:
💻 Use technology! Establish a sense of normalcy and connection by planning daily morning virtual coffee meetings. Make yourself a grounding, warm beverage and FaceTime/Zoom/Skype someone you love and enjoy connecting with. Even just a 15-minute virtual coffee date can shift your mood. (Same goes for virtual happy hours if that’s up your alley.)
🧩 Create a peak experience. A peak experience is one where the mind is so focused and present that you lose track of time and get lost in the moment. Some favorite ways of doing this include puzzles, adult coloring books, and abstract pour painting. These activities engage your senses and require enough concentration to keep you PRESENT. Coloring books and painting materials can be ordered quickly online and can provide relief for the entire household.
🧘 Practice self-care! My go-to-self-care tool recommendations are meditation and gentle stretching with mindful breathwork. For meditation, check out the free app, Insight Timer, and search for sound baths, “Yoga Nidra” by Jana Roemer, and anything by Sarah Blondin. Deep breathing clears the lungs and keeps the heart healthy in addition to lowering cortisol and stress in the body. Lowered cortisol means your immune system gets a boost.
🌞 Vitamin D. Vitamin D can only be properly absorbed through the skin, so get in the sunlight for 10-15 minutes a day, preferably in the morning, to reset your circadian rhythms and get a natural mood boost. This is also a great time to go barefoot and enjoy some grounding benefits from being in direct contact with the earth.
✍️ Write handwritten letters. This benefits a lot more than just you. Letters can be a journaling exercise for yourself, you can write letters to loved ones, or you can write letters to folks in nursing homes who are unable to have outside visitors right now. Write a letter, introduce yourself, share some fun facts about you, and make a request for a pen pal. If you are feeling open and vulnerable, write that stranger a letter about the best day of your life, the first time you fell in love, or whatever you wish you could tell your younger self.
Katie’s also hosting a four-week virtual self-care class on Tuesdays or Thursdays starting next week (March 24) if you need more of where this came from.
Tell us how you’re practicing self-care in these unusual times. Send me an email: katie@pulp.town, with a subject line of Self-caring in Orlando and we’ll share your suggestions in a newsletter next week.