No one could have imagined that we would experience a period like we are now. The compulsory lockdown due to Covid-19 has led us to adjust our bearings, reassess our needs and our priorities. This lockdown confines us, depriving us of our freedom as if we were incarcerated. The anxiety of being contaminated by the Coronavirus also generates an uncustomary and potentially pathological stress.
What are the rules to follow to survive lockdown as best you can?
Activity
First of all, it is essential to maintain a minimal amount of physical activity, both for your physical and mental health. When it is possible, go outside for 30 minutes to get some fresh air and oxygenate your lungs. If it is complicated or impossible to go outside, try and optimize the interior space: do some cardio by going up and down the stairs for 15 to 20 minutes and favor in situ cardio like skipping. You can also make the most of the time stuck indoors to discover or improve your yoga. Combining deep muscle work and meditation, yoga can provide valuable help at this stressful time. Even in a small space, you can do yoga and work on deep muscles, stretching, and breathing.
Many lessons are now available free of charge online to train at home from muscle coaching to yoga sessions.
Diet
It is of course easy to give in to the temptation of snacking when you are stuck at home. As we are more sedentary than usual (there aren’t even any short journeys on the underground), ideally it is better to consume fewer calories than we normally do.
Although snacking is not necessarily harmful in itself, it is the nutritional quality of the food eaten that can be an issue. Rather than eating chocolate, sweets, or biscuits throughout the day, it is better to choose fruit and vegetables, and you can drink as much tea and infusions without sugar as you like.
Beauty
Even if the jokes about our physical condition at the end of lockdown are legion (unshaven, disheveled hair, dark hair roots, etc.), it is possible to look on the positive side of this compulsory physical sidelining.
Firstly, it is the opportunity to lighten your make-up. For those who never go out without foundation or mascara, lockdown can help you get used to not wearing make-up every day. The benefits for the skin will soon become visible. Skin suffocated less by make-up that can breathe better will quickly see minor imperfections such as spots improve. Wrinkles and fine lines are also paradoxically less visible with lighter makeup. Test the nude skin feeling on the face for one day, see that you can do it, and then get used to one day a week without make-up.
Then, being confined to the house means having more time at home to try and do the things that we never have the time to do. Leave a mask on your hair (even if you have to work at the same time), and take the time to leave on a facial treatment.
Rethink our habits. Take the opportunity to change.
Social Life
Our social life is also under lockdown, restricted to a few close family members with whom we share the house or inexistent for those who live alone. But physical distancing must not mean social distancing. Maintaining social interaction is essential to our psychological well-being. Regularly catching up with isolated or weaker people, and organizing virtual dinners or aperitifs via an app so you can be together and thus maintain social contact is essential to our psychological well-being.
For those who can or must work remotely, retaining a professional occupation helps you stay connected with the outside world and feel useful, as lockdown can be synonymous with idleness and the feeling of being useless (which can lead to a depressive syndrome).
Of course, physical meetings, for whatever occasion, are strictly advised against as they can be the starting point for the spread of the virus; a contaminated subject can be contagious without presenting any Covid-19 symptoms.
Outings
It is important to keep the number of outings to a strict minimum, to purchase basic necessities for instance, and for work if necessary. For these outings, it is essential to follow the safety measures to limit the risk of contracting Coronavirus: wear a mask and keep a safe distance from other people. Wearing gloves can be useful as long as they are single-use and you do not touch anything with them: do not touch your face or hair. Once you get home, you should dispose of any packaging and wash your hands.
This difficult and strange period of lockdown has shaken up our daily routines and it is normal to feel unsettled, even anxious about the situation. Let’s try and maintain a certain routine in our life, take the opportunity to change our habits, and remember that physical distancing does not mean ignoring your neighbor or even being scared of them. Helping each other physically and morally is still possible so we can work towards a brighter future together.