10 Tips To Stay Sane and Reduce Stress During Quarantine

Happy Sunday, everyone!

Hope everyone is staying safe and finding lots of fun and/or productive ways to stay busy during these difficult and strange times that we are in.

I have found this quarantine to be challenging and stressful for many reasons. I do appreciate the freed up time on my hands and have found some things that have helped me when I'm feeling stressed out over everything, and wanted to share some of them with you. Some of these tips are obvious things that one might do during quarantine but some have proven to be very helpful and cathartic for my stress/ type A personality.

Let me start off by saying, this quarantine has me taking more hot, Epsom salt baths than I've taken in years, and I'm not mad about it! 🛁

1. Watching Old TV Shows and Movies

Netflix has to be one of the most obvious things to do. I actually don't watch a lot of Netflix (yet) but I have really been enjoying binge-watching the show Ozark. I spend too much time online and I'm hoping to reduce that and spend more time watching TV and/or Netflix as it's much more relaxing than being online all day and night. I find that watching old TV shows and movies can be relaxing as it takes us back to more simple times "the good ole' days" some might say. Although, you don't need Netflix to watch old shows and movies as some TV channels have plenty of them to watch.

2. Intricate Adult Colouring Books

I purchased a fabulous adult colouring book where there are such small, intricate details in the beautiful artwork. It's a real stress-buster as it takes all of your focus and attention into the process of colouring, being careful to stay inside all of the lines and allowing creativity to flow as you select your own colours from the coloured pencils to create your own masterpiece. This is just what the type A personality needs! Similar book linked here.

See below for a peek inside the book and my 1st unfinished attempt at colouring.

3. Cleaning, Organizing, and Decluttering (Kon Mari)

I love being organized! I believe everything should have a place. As a lover of fashion and beauty products, my collection just keeps growing over time, so I have to keep on top of organizing and decluttering my items. I usually do this every season, but there is no better time than now to make the time for it. I have heard so much about the Kon Mari methods for organizing and decluttering which was created by Marie Kondo and outlined in her book The Life-changing Magic of Tidying Up. I use some of her ideas and leave others that don't mesh with me at this time.

Cleaning, organizing, and decluttering are very satisfying for me. My biggest take away so far during quarantine, is that I finally took the time to apply Marie Kondo's folding techniques to all of my tops. I never had the patience to do it properly before. I didn't believe that it would give me more space as I had tried my own take on her folding method and it did not save space and my drawers wouldn't close. This time, I took the time to watch a YouTube video on how to apply her folding method and I followed it exactly. This proved to be very cathartic for me! Since I am not a patient person, it was exactly the right task for me! It takes concentration, time, and patience so it actually becomes like a form of meditation. It was very relaxing for me and very rewarding as it ended up saving me so much space and I can now see all of my tops, so they are all getting used!

See the pictures below with the results of my Kon Mari folding method for my tops.

 T-shirt folded Kon Mari Style

 Above: Short sleeve and long sleeve tops folded the Kon Mari way

I can see everything and I have more space in the back.

Above: Sweatshirt drawer folded the Kon Mari way

4. Use It Or Lose It / Selling Items Without Contact

After decluttering, you will have items to donate, toss or sell. With these difficult times upon us, it never hurts to make some extra cash for your unwanted items.

I have a lot of luck with Facebook Marketplace (my ad is shown below), and Poshmark Canada. Both allow for contactless transactions and are easy to use. When I sell something on Facebook, the buyer sends a free etransfer to my email and we arrange a time for them to pick up the item on my porch.

With Poshmark, you send the items via mail, so I ship all of my sales when I'm at the store and have my mask on per usual when going to the stores these days.

If you are new to Poshmark, you can sign up using my invite code POSHSUMMERGIRL on the sign up page and get a $15 credit! Linked here.

5. Trying New Recipes; Baking and Cooking

I think a lot of people are enjoying baking and trying new recipes now more than ever. We often resort to frozen pizzas but homemade cannot be beat. Below is my favourite pizza recipe. I purchased a thin wholegrain crust and added my favourite toppings: Pizza sauce, mozzarella, feta, sundried tomatoes, black olives, onions and garlic. I ran out of sundried tomatoes and used regular ones this time, it was just as good!

The Dalgona coffee recipe (shown below) is all over social media so I had to give it a try. I found it quite strong, so I will try it again with half of the ingredients.

Homemade Pizza 🤤

Dalgona Coffee

6. Pampering- Hair and Skin Treatments

Now is the perfect time to give our hair and skin some extra pampering. Needless to say, I'm finally getting around to using up a lot of my products that were being neglected, along with my skin and hair!

As I mentioned at the beginning of this post, there is nothing like a nice hot Epsom salt bath to relax your mind and body. I like to add some lavender essential oils, my favourite Live Clean bubble bath, and light a candle.

You can take all of the above ideas and create a spa day at home with some relaxation music for the full experience.

7. Exercise, Yoga, Meditation

Now is the perfect time to start exercising- check with your doctor before beginning a new form of exercise. Depending on your health and energy levels, you may want to do some gentle exercises like yoga, walking, or do some HIIT workouts. You can find tons of free exercise routines on YouTube.

Below are 2 of my favourite yoga DVD's. Sara Ivanhoe's Body Makeover has five 20 minute routines using Hatha style yoga, while the Happy Hormones by Ana Brett uses Kundalini style of yoga which is very different from the conventional Hatha style of yoga but has a lot of health benefits, including balancing out your hormones.

There are plenty of fitness DVD's, free YouTube videos, as well as apps for most forms of exercise as well as meditation. I really like the Down Dog app and the Insight Timer app.

8. Makeup Organizing and Decluttering

I know a lot of people online are into decluttering their makeup collections now more than ever. I recently cleaned out my makeup collection and tossed out everything that was expired. I felt bad that I had wasted so much makeup as I wasn't able to use it all up before it expired. But I feel so good that I've now fit almost my entire makeup collection into the makeup organizer shown below. The only items that I am not able to fit into this organizer yet are my palettes and tools.

We may not be able to go to stores yet, but you can still get organizers like this online.

ALMOST my entire makeup collection (minus palettes and tools)

9. Haircuts and Colour

Many of us will have to resort to a DIY haircut. I've been doing my own hair for the last few years and I have some tips and tools to take the stress out of it! Check out my post on how I cut my own hair linked here. I use some tools that make it super easy and simple including the Crea Clip.

I also do my own highlight and base bump! I have a whole post on how I bump my base and tone my hair linked here. Goldwell 10p + 20 volume developer are my secret weapons to toning my hair and bumping my base in 10 minutes!

10. Reading, Hobbies, Crafts, and Games

Some more common tips worth mentioning are starting hobbies that you've always wanted to or ones that you haven't had the time for in a while. Finally picking up that novel or self help book that you've been meaning to read.

Playing cards, board games, and puzzles are also lots of fun and can help relieve stress during these tough times.

Lastly, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the benefits of good sleep (that's a whole other post), music, and sometimes you just need a nice big bowl of your favourite ice cream! 🍨

I hope you found some of these tips helpful.

Let me know what you're doing to have fun, keep busy and combat stress during these difficult times.

Now I'm off for yet another hot bath! 😊

#staysafe

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