Coping with the covistress.

                         It is very imperative that you keep a tab on your mental health always in order to maintain an overall balance to your well being. There are many factors which cause so much of unwanted stress if not dealt with properly. With this ongoing pandemic, there is another such stress and I would call it covistress. Yes, the stress caused due to covid-19. It might sound silly to some of us, but it has caused a significant amount of stress to a majority of population across the world over the past few months. We have to be very careful and not let the covistress take control and affect us. This could induce nagging thoughts in mind which most of the times are overly negative and unproductive. Many of us can be innovative when it comes to finding ways to deal with stress. Instead of jotting them as some tips to overcome the covistress, I would like to tell what I did to overcome this covistress, anxiety issues and I hope that it might help some of you to find a start point. 

                                                                                                    Because of the impact this pandemic is causing to the world, it is evident that all focus would be to deal with it or to end it and hence this would be the headline of any news irrespective of the medium. I have consciously distanced myself from all such sources of covid news. I might inadvertently come across the covid news at some time through the day, but I make a conscious effort and train my mind to not dig deep into it or indulge into the details. It is good to keep myself informed but at times this seems to be an overdose of covid information causing unwanted stress and anxiety issues affecting the mind. So, I have limited my attention to the news on TV, internet, Whatsapp to as minimum as possible. 

        I have decided upon giving adequate rest to my body. No, I do not mean to sleep for the majority of the day but whenever possible I take smaller naps during the day to limit the traffic of thoughts to my mind. I feel much more relaxed after every such nap and it feels like meditation to me. I felt a huge drop in the anxiety levels after these powerful pleasant naps. 

I was not so inclined towards physical fitness before the pandemic, I guess the amount of physical activity involved in going to work and going out on a regular basis was enough to burn some calories. I am now working from home and a certain laziness seems to have crept in over this period. I have started exercising and I can tell you that I am feeling very good about it.This is helping me ward off the covistress by simulating my mental health every time I get closer to maintaining my physical health. Unimaginable, but I have now set some fitness goals and maybe this is occupying space in my mind leaving none for the covistress. 

I am very used to socializing with friends and I find it hard to not meet any friends and stay at home during the lockdown. We are social animals and restricting our social gatherings due to the covid-19 pandemic also attributes to covistress. Video calls have come to the rescue and I am spending time talking to all my friends over a couple of drinks every weekend, maybe we could call it an online party. Though it is over a video call, it gives me a feeling of being connected and leaves me happier. 

With so much being talked about health and limited options of eating out, I guess we have no choice but to eat the home made food. I have started eating healthy home cooked meals in alignment to the fitness goals that I have set for myself. I have also learnt a few recipes and cooked some meals myself and it appears to bust the covistress by giving me a feeling of accomplishment(I think I am getting ready to participate in the next season of masterchef contest).  

And finally it all boils down to how good you keep yourself entertained during these tough times that matters in dealing with covistress or any kind of stress. I took up to reading again given the extra time that I get due to the work from home setup. I have also started watching movies and endless web series of Netflix, Amazon Prime etc. Undoubtedly, listening to music while working out or cooking a delicious meal can only add to the power to combat the covistress. 

                            All these little tips have put me in a happier space and make me feel content. I do not feel anxious anymore and feel more balanced in my thoughts. It is not so easy for many of us, but a conscious effort can go a long way in dealing with the covistress and thereby stay happy and optimistic of the future. Please feel free to share your ideas if any to effectively overcome the covistress in the comments below and maybe that will help someone in need of it.

Do the homework before you work from home!

                                                 With the onset of the pandemic due to covid-19, many of us started working form home. While we started enjoying the new trend of working from home for a number of reasons, the fun seems to be fading slowly. This emerging trend of working from home is now becoming stressful causing unwanted anxiety and affecting both the mental and physical well being. It is important that we follow a few important steps in order to maintain the work life balance especially in this new setup of working from home. Here are a few tips that would help you balance it out and improve your overall well being and thereby keeping you and your family happy.

1. Dedicated workspace:

Create a dedicated work area in your home, which means you would login to your laptop or work only from this space and not roam carrying your work all around the home. This will create a physical boundary and indirectly helps in focusing on either work or family when in and out of the work area. You can advise your family members about this barrier and restrict them from invading your workspace which makes you more focused and productive while you are in your work area.

2. Furniture and Internet :

It is very important that you feel comfortable spending time at your workspace. Get a comfortable table and chair which do not affect your posture while at work. Do not underestimate the importance of this piece of furniture and do not hesitate to invest a good amount of money to get this furniture. This goes a long way to help you maintain your physical posture and not have any adverse effects. Needless to point out the importance of an uninterrupted power supply and a dedicated internet connection. Get an uninterrupted power supply to the work area and upgrade your internet connection to meet the demanding work load including the seamless zoom meetings. You may want to consider investing in some good quality headphones for the online meetings. This will ensure you do not become anxious of losing connectivity, or not being heard etc., in between an important meeting and lets you work peacefully.

3. Stipulated work time: 

If you have predefined shit timings ensure that you stick to the stipulated time and do not stretch yourself beyond those work hours. If you have the flexibility to decide your work time, please think and set up a work schedule and follow it regularly. If you decide that you work from 9 am to 6 pm, then be consistent and start and stop your work at the agreed times diligently. Make sure that your colleagues or team at work know your availability during the day. You have to discipline yourself which will help you segregate the work and personal time. Do you think you should be working beyond your work hours without any extra pay? It can be demanding at times to meet very critical project deadlines but other than those specific incidents there really is no need to stretch beyond the work hours. If you are ending up doing so, it means that you are not planning your work properly to finish it during the stipulated time. Think again and plan your work accordingly. 

4. Planners & to-do lists:

As I stated above, it is very important to plan your work to ensure you do not work beyond your work hours. To effectively do so, you may use planners to plan things ahead and follow the plan to accomplish the tasks. Prepare a to-do list to track the progress and also be aware of the pending tasks to be addressed before close of business. A well planned work schedule will improve your productivity and boost your confidence with a sense of achievement whenever you tick off the tasks on your to-do list. You may also want to use timers on your mobile or the reminder feature on your outlook or any such application to achieve this. 

5. Break time:

I am sure all of us miss those tea breaks with our colleagues which sometimes become unusually long breaks with endless fun gossips along with lip smacking snacks accompanying our favorite sip of tea. Even though you work from home, it is important that you take a break from your work and move out of your work area. This will help you move your body and also refreshes your mind in the same way as it used to be when you were at your office location. Think and decide upon a specific time for lunch or dinner depending upon your work hours and make sure to include your break times when you plan you work schedule for the day and stick to the specific break times daily. 

6. Avoid distractions:

Strictly stay away from social media and stay focused on you work while you are at your workspace. Avoid family, friends and pets from distracting you when you are working. Make arrangements in such a way that you can address all these needs outside your work hours unless it is absolutely an emergency. Needless to say, the less distracted you are the more productive you would be. Think of the same alternatives that you had for these distractions when you were physically at your office location away from home.  

                             The above tips will help you get a better working experience in the evolving trend of "WFH". However, there are so many other innovative ways to break the monotony of working from home and ways to improve the productivity while working from home. I hope to share some of them very soon, until then happy working from home.

Cordon the Corona!

 Tough people last, tough times don't! This is what we say when someone is going through a hard time, to motivate or encourage them to face the hardship with an optimistic vigor. It is that phase of our lives where we need to constantly remind ourselves about this and move ahead with a lot of courage. The news of how this pandemic due to covid-19 is affecting every life on this planet is causing even more stress to most of us. It is very imperative for each one of us to understand the seriousness of the situation and behave in a manner that aids to the control of this covid-19 pandemic. 

                    We all are constantly being subjected to various pieces of advice from multiple platforms, but to no avail if we look at how we as a nation are dealing with this pandemic. The political rallies, the khumbh melas, the crowded wedding parties, are only to name a few. India has really been panned by the way it handled the pandemic. Given the rise in the number of positive cases of corona virus in the 2nd wave, it is clear that all the advice, guidelines, awareness initiatives are falling short. Is it because the message is not conveyed properly to the mass and illiterate population of India? Or is it because of the ignorance of the majority making them illiterate irrespective of their official literacy status? I really appreciate all the front line workers who are working relentlessly towards controlling this pandemic and at the same time it agonizes me to witness few morons causing the virus to spread because they choose to stay ignorant or think they are immortal.  

The health, disaster management organisations are re-iterating on the simple guidelines one should follow in order to break the chain of this life taking virus. Please be aware and make the people around you aware about the deadly impact this virus has on the human kind. It is high time that we as a nation, have to step up and behave in order to have the number of cases decline over the coming days and eventually end the pandemic. If we do not gear up against it now, then considering the current situation we might end up inviting a horrifying 3rd wave of the corona virus spread with no front line workers and equipment available at rescue. 

Given that we are all social animals, it is very hard to lock ourselves up and stay away from each other. We can also become the most creative during such testing times to come up with solutions which would satiate the need of being social. I would also try and write more about topics surrounding this pandemic like mental health, dealing with stress, effective ways to be productive during lockdown, vaccination FAQs with the help of my friends having expertise in the fields of health and disaster management. At this hour, I think I have no choice but to repeat:

Stay home and do not step out unless it is absolutely necessary. Wear a mask whenever you go out and practice social distancing at all times. Wash your hands with soap more frequently and use sanitizers when soap is unavailable outdoors. Avoid touching your eyes, nose and mouth as much as possible and when your hands are not washed thoroughly.  These simple behavioral changes is all it takes to fight this pandemic and emerge as winners. I really wish everyone understands the need of the hour and help the country, the world and thereby the human kind to get rid of the corona virus. 

Stay home, stay safe and save lives!