Practical Advice for Social Distancing from Raleigh

Raleigh Kincaid | April 2, 2020

This time, I would like to offer a little reminder and some practical advice for those of you who are isolating and staying at home all or almost all of the time. Again, this is from my perspective as a therapist, as I know that spiritual and theological words are more the skill of our other staff members.

Of course, it’s not easy. The first couple of days can seem like an adventure but the further we get into this and the longer it goes on, the more difficult it can become. There are ways, however, to make it a little easier or at least less hard! Some of those are things that you are probably already trying to apply to your children if you have them home but they are just as important to you. I call them the two R’s.

My two R’s are rest and routine. We know that our kids do better with these, right? Well, at what point did they stop being important to you? I would argue never. We just do better as human beings when we get proper, adequate rest and when our days have a sense of direction.

The rest one is complicated because there can be too little and there can be too much when it comes to rest. You need to know what amount of rest you need and strive to achieve that. And that might mean adding a nap during the day and it might mean NOT taking a nap during the day. Yes, you can get too much and it’s important to not overdo. The more you overdo during the day, the harder it is for the proper nighttime rest to be achieved and the more prone you are to late night rumination and even the onset of some depressive and/or anxious thoughts.

In most of our lives, routine is imposed on us by work and regular activities but if you are home all the time and that is not your norm, you may have to impose some routine on yourself. I’m not suggesting filling up every minute of every day but rather some sense of the things you expect to get to and specifically scheduling in the things that are healthy for you including exercise, spiritual practices, connecting (healthily) with others both inside and outside your home, healthy eating, and some form of regular play.

Yes, I understand you know all these things but if there is one thing that I have learned from talking with people in therapy over the years it is that knowing what to do and doing it are not always related! Think about it and if you need to do better, today would be a great day to start!

Much love!