How I Spend My Days During Quarantine
I wrote a post last week about how I was feeling during quarantine. Reading it back, I realize how often my feelings have fluctuated during the past few weeks. Some days feel amazing and calm and other days I feel chaotic and frustrated. And I’m slowly learning to make peace with that.
I have noticed that my days generally take on their own “schedule”. Nothing is set in stone because I’ve always been the type of person that needs some fluidity in the way I get things done. When quarantine first started, I was very much about following my intuition. This often included a lot of time journaling and connecting to myself and my needs. As time goes on, I’ve found myself craving a little bit of structure. Instead of going fully one way or the other, I’ve started to automatically create a routine that works off of my intuition and still contains a bit of structure.
Here’s how it looks:
(This is on a typical day, not on days when I have virtual consultations with patients. My day is usually much more structured when I have consults.)
+Morning
I try to wake up around 9am and I lounge in bed for a bit. Sometimes I’ll fall back asleep if I feel like I need that. I’m not super hard on myself if I need to sleep in. If I wake up at 9am, I’ll spend some time scrolling Instagram (bad habit, but right now I feel like I need that bit of connection right away in the morning). I get myself some hot water+lemon or hot water on it’s own and either journal or meditate. I’ll either stay in bed or set myself up in front of the window in the living room. This doesn’t happen everyday, but I try to make it happen as often as I can because I truly enjoy it.
Around 10:30AM I’ll FaceTime my sister and we will do a workout together. We have been working out about 6 days a week together and it’s been something we both have been loving and something that kinda naturally happened right at the beginning of quarantine because we both really felt like we needed it. We do different workouts like barre, pilates, HIIT, zumba, yoga, etc. I’ve really been feeling a lot better in my body since starting these workouts with her and it gives me something to look forward to and has an element of structure and accountability to it. Since my sister and I know each other well, we know when to motivate each other if one of us doesn’t feel like working out but we also know when to give each other space if one of us doesn’t feel like working out.
After this, I’ll usually make something to eat and/or have a smoothie while chatting with my sister and figuring out what I want to do for the rest of the day. I’ll wash my face (super important for skincare post-exercise) and then get going on whatever it is I wanted to do that day. Sometimes it involves just lounging on the couch. Sometimes it’s intentional reading (1 hour of committed reading time). Or blogging. Sometimes it’s work. I really allow my intuition to come through here and do what I feel I need to.
+Afternoon
Around 2 or 3pm I try to get outside for a walk after I’ve eaten lunch. I do this almost daily unless I’m really not feeling it (usually that is on Sunday for some reason or if it’s rainy and icky outside). I walk up to Queen’s park near my home and take the same trail I love through the trees, turn around at the end and walk back the same way. It totals about 40 minutes and I listen to a podcast while I walk. I usually listen to The Balanced Blonde because I find her voice and topics very soothing and perfect for walks in the park (a lot about spirituality and wellness). Sometimes I’ll listen to other podcasts like Off The Vine or The Skinny Confidential or The Feel Good Podcast. It really depends on my mood, but they are all either wellness/health related and/or funny/entertaining.
Once I get home I shower and get into comfy clothes. At this point I’ll either start working on an evening project (work related, blogging, DIY projects) or I’ll wind down early and watch a show or movie.
+Evening
In the evening, I’ll get ready to cook a meal or at least have an idea of what I want to eat even if it’s leftovers so I’m not getting to the point where I’m starving and I’m not sure what to eat (which I was doing a lot in the beginning of quarantine). If it’s a cooking day I’ll pop on another podcast and start cooking. If not I’ll eat dinner and watch a movie or show - sometimes while FaceTiming my boyfriend so we can have a movie date (he’s in Calgary and I’m in Vancouver).
+Night
I try my best to get my butt off the couch and into bed to read at a decent time, but there are often nights where I end up scrolling Instagram or watching funny videos on TikTok or YouTube and sometimes fall asleep on the couch only to wake up suddenly hours later and find my way to my bed. It’s not the most ideal thing, but it happens sometimes and that’s ok. If it’s a good day, then I’m in bed by 11:30pm with a book.
So that’s generally what my days look like. There’s a bit of structure in there because I have things that I feel I really need for myself like working out and going outside for walks. But I still keep room for doing what I feel like in between. The main lesson I’m learning right now is to not be so hard on myself if things don’t go the way I want. I find that over-planning my day creates anxiety but just leaving things up in the air make me feel frustrated. A balance between the two is just what I need. And knowing that every day is going to look and feel different is a huge part of it! Some days things are a complete write-off and I spend the whole day on the couch. Thinking too much about how I might feel if I don’t accomplish something during this time makes me feel really uncomfortable and triggers a lot of negative self-talk. All I want is to come out of this feeling nourished and cared for and that is what I’m focusing on. Anything else is a bonus.
How are you spending your days? Are you a structured person? Or do you like to have a lot of flexibility? I would love to hear from you below :)
Ps. Despite what my shirt says in the cover photo for this blog post, there’s never any judgement from me. You are always always welcome here. :)