How To Stay Sane During Lockdowns

I usually have set guidelines about my daily routine because I know when they are there, life flows so much better. I am healthier, happier, and calmer. However, with everything that is going on right now, (we are in our second month of lockdowns) I noticed that I started to bend those guidelines and everything about my day changed. This ended up being a great reminder about why I put those guidelines there in the first place!

Do you get those times when you feel overwhelmed, or that you just have so much ‘to do’ you are not sure where you’ll get the time to do it all? Or that things just aren’t flowing and there is friction and tension in your life? Then you start to try harder and push more, and you end up tired and overwhelmed. In those times we ignore the powerful steps and routines that we had in place to keep us balanced, healthy and happy.

This is what had happened to me lately. I bent my rules and paid the price. Some of my rules are:

– start the day with stretching and meditation

– exercise every day

– having a short nap after lunch

– meditate before dinner

– eat slowly and consciously

– placing my attention on the single task at hand

– stretch and read before bed

– no technology after 10pm

– gratitude journaling to finish my day

I know that if I apply these simple guidelines, my days will be a blissful effortless experience that leads to more blissful effortless experiences under the laws of attraction. But lately I had some big deadlines and I was working till midnight then getting up at 5am to do more work. I skipped my morning routines, I ate food as if it was getting in the way of my ‘doing’, I was multi-tasking like driving and checking phone calls, and I allowed my mind to project forward into ‘what if scenarios’.

What happened then was a series of comical events. Firstly small things like stubbed toes (sign of not being present), and not sleeping well, to eventually things like technological failures, missed meeting times and an overstimulated mind that starts to drift towards a negative forecasting. All this of course continues that snowballing effect of getting attached to your outcomes and the outcomes then not gracefully unfolding.

When we entertain ‘neediness’ into our life, it totally changes the outcomes of your day. Sure, we need to perform action, but when you perform action from that place of peace and calm, then the results of your actions will be very different. There is a Sanskrit saying ‘yogasthah kuru karmani’ which means ‘established in being, perform action’.

How are you going out there? Do you have a daily routine that you like to stick to?