Surviving The Coronavirus Pandemic
Originally written March 16, 2020
As you may or may not know by now, I have been working retail part time since I have moved to Boston, and as of today March 16th, the retail company I work for decided to officially shut down all store locations for the next two weeks in order to social distance and help slow the spread of infection. Luckily the company will still be paying their employees, so thankfully I don’t have to be concerned about money. Since this is the case, I am trying to look at this social distancing break almost as a “spring break” in order to stay positive.
I wanted to go on a spring break trip later in April anyways, but since I am getting the time off now and I unfortunately shouldn’t travel (because I don’t want to contribute to spreading any germs) I might as well make use of my time. Plus I ordered my first ever self tanning lotion and I am super excited to try it when it arrives!
Today I started the day off by sleeping in and then eventually showering and eating leftover pizza. I felt a little guilty for sleeping in so much so I decided to be super productive and clean my room and Marie Kondo the clothes in my dresser (get rid of the stuff I haven’t found myself to be wearing this season). Then I treated myself by doing a hand scrub and painting my nails.
As positive as I am trying to be during this time, I feel panic and anxiety creeping up on me all the time and I hate it. I had actually been waking up from nightmares every single night last week from all the stress I was feeling. I hate waking up and learning that more things have been closed. I know closures are only temporary and they are a preventative measure and soon enough things will get better, but it’s hard to not feel like the world is ending. Not to mention it makes me more anxious to see all the panic amongst everyone else.
Last night my anxiety got to a climax and I let myself cry because I realized I had been holding so much in and had been trying not to process what’s happening around me. Above everything, I feel scared because so much feels out of my control right now. Once I calmed down, I tried to ground myself by laying on my cold bedroom floor and just breathed until I was calm. Feeling the cold wood against my skin was very therapeutic.
Once I started to feel better, I knew I needed to shift my focus on things I CAN control, so I got ready for bed because my night time routine is something I can still control. I flossed, brushed my teeth, put in retainers, applied night cream and lash serum.
As I was doing my nightly scroll of Instagram, I decided I wanted to start sharing positive posts on my story everyday so that I have something uplifting to look at, and maybe bring that to some of my followers as well. I had recently shared a post about the positives that have come from CoronaVirus on my story, and I had a lot of people DM me thanking me for posting that. I think people just need a break from all the negative news and hysteria we are seeing everyday. I made an Instagram highlight on my profile called “positive” so that I had one place I (and my followers if they wanted) could look through when I needed a break from the negativity. Creating this positivity highlight has actually really helped me channel my anxious energy into something uplifting and made me feel a lot better (I hope it helps others too).