Our Top Tips for Lock Down and Self-Isolation

We’re over halfway through our 14 day self-isolation due to the Covid-19 Coronavirus. We’re both still feeling fine and showing no symptoms, so we strongly suspect we haven’t brought anything back with us from our travels in Spain and through France. However we’re going to continue for the full 14 days so we’re certain. Then we can get out and help our parents and folks in our community knowing we’re not passing anything on.

A lady called Nora got in touch after reading one of our previous posts about self-isolation and asked if we had any tips for getting through this stressful situation. We’ve only been in isolation a week, but we do have a lot of experience of being together in a small space, and life in a motorhome can be similar to lockdown when it’s raining!

Everyone is different

While my first (and main) piece of advice is obvious, but at this difficult time I think it needs saying. Everyone is different and we’re all dealing with this in different ways. While this may cause issues and conflict, please try to remember it’s a good thing we’re a varied bunch too, as the world would be so boring if we were all the same. So, what works for Jay and I might not work for you, but hopefully it this post will help by giving you some ideas.

Being stuck in a small space, even with those you love, will put a strain on even the best of relationships. So when things get tough, and they probably will, it’s worth remembering that while you may not agree with someone else’s opinion you can still respect it. Agree to disagree and move on. Also don’t expect others to feel the same as you at the same time. This is all a bit of a roller-coaster, and some folks will be feeling OK while others are plummeting down or bouncing up. Which brings me onto my next piece of advice…

Talk to each other

By this I don’t just mean the normal day-to-day talking we all do, but really talk to each other. Set some time aside and discuss how you are all feeling. Jay and I talk all the time, we live in close proximity with each other so you’d expect nothing less, but once a week we TALK. We both discuss how we are feeling, our thoughts on anything and everything, our fears, our hopes, what’s annoying us, what we’re grateful for – whatever we need to say. Since we’ve gone into self-isolation we’ve been talking like this a lot more on a daily basis, but we still keep our time set aside and check in with each other as this is so important, especially at the moment with so much happening so fast.

It’s OK not to be OK

The world has been pretty much turned upside down over the last two weeks and all of our lives have changed in unimaginable ways. In these circumstances, I would be very worried about anyone who says they are 100% OK. For me it has almost been like a grieving process, mourning the loss of a past life and adjusting to a new normal. I can be fine one minute then something sets me off – last time it was a song on the radio that brought back memories of dancing in a club with my friends, something I haven’t done in years, but it still hurt knowing that I couldn’t go and do it now if I wanted to.

So if you need to cry, cry. If you want to retreat under the duvet, retreat. This isn’t a time for the old British stiff upper lip. We’re locked down and isolated with some of those we are closest to (most of us are, and those that are in flat shares will undoubtedly become a lot closer through all of this), so share your emotions and support each other.

Keep in contact

We have never had so many Skype, Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp chats! We may be physically isolated from everyone else, but they are digitally with us all the time. Jay is remotely helping his parents get started with Facebook so they can video message and keep in touch with their friends while in isolation, we never realised how tricky Facebook is to use until he started doing this – so many tiny icons! I’ve created a family WhatsApp group where we can share silly videos to entertain each other, and so my Brother and I can compare scores on PopMaster each morning (Ken Bruce on Radio 2 at 10.30am if you want to play along).

We’ve Skyped with friends in Australia, we’ve enjoyed ‘virtual worksops’ with other members of our running club and we’ve laughed via Facebook at the various exercises Joe Wicks is getting us to do at 9am each morning. If this pandemic had happened 10 years ago, things would have been very different, but today there is a whole digital world to keep us connected and entertained. See it as a little escape from everything and enjoy.

Exercise

We’re fortunate to have a friend who has loaned us their exercise bike. While folks in lock down are still encouraged to go out for their ‘one a day’ (some form of exercise alone or with someone your live with) we’re in self-isolation so we aren’t going out at all. No nipping to the shops and not out for a walk or run, until we know we’re clear of any bugs. We have a 10m by 3m yard that is pretty full of stuff but it means we can get outside. The bike is positioned to get the sun in the morning, so we can top up our vitamin D and get our heart rate up at the same time.

For the first week in isolation exercise was the last thing on my mind, which was all over the place. However, knowing we’re all in this for at least few weeks, made me realise that I needed to do something. The feeling I get after doing some form of exercise is exactly what I need right now. Once we’re on lock down, I’m looking forward to going for a walk in the countryside around us – seeing nature carry on as normal always helps to put things into perspective for me – or a run. I managed to run a 5k (3 miles) in our yard the other day. It took 500 lengths, and the hardest part was keeping count, I think I’ll stick to the bike until we can get out.

Top tips for day-to-day life in isolation or lock down

Here are some of the things we’re doing to help ourselves during our current isolation and the lock down we’ll be moving into next week:

• Give the days some structure. If you are working from home, you’ll already have some of this, but folks who suddenly find their days free may wonder what to do with all that time – I know we certainly did when we stopped working. Get up at a reasonable hour (I’ll leave it to you to decide what is reasonable for you) and set yourself a few small goals for the day – go for a run/walk, read for an hour, clean the bathroom, bake something.
• Set yourself a COVID-19 goal. This is an opportunity for us to come out of this thing a little improved as individuals. Is there something you have been thinking of doing for ages? Learning a new language, a musical instrument or how to knit or crochet? Use this time to give it a kick start. There are so many free resources on YouTube you can do or learn almost anything. If you fancy starting running, the NHS has a fantastic couch to 5k programme. Jay and I are both working on our Spanish each day, just an hour or so, but by the time we get out of lock down, we’ll be a lot better at it than when we went in.
• Limit or take control of your news intake. By it’s very nature the news is dramatic and sensational, each headline needing to be more impactful than the last to keep our attention. The stations have 24 hours to fill and will grab any tiny morsel of a story and inflate it into something frequently way more significant to each of us than it really is – I wonder how many shops ran out of loo roll before the press started shouting about folks panic buying it? These are anxious enough times without having it drummed into you 24 hours a day. We have the radio in the background during the day (but turn over when Jeremy Vine comes on – sorry Jeremy, but you’re the epitome of what I am talking about) and we don’t turn our TV on until (Boris o’clock) 5pm, so we tend to get our news from the BBC website, scrolling past what we don’t need to read and focusing only on what we want to know about.
• Read and watch stuff that inspires you. Now Eastenders is only on twice a week you’ve a bit of spare time to seek out things that will inspire you! Jay is has been watching The Golden Trail Series on YouTube where people have been trail running in some amazing places. I’ve just finished reading The Power of Now, which has been on my shelf for months.
• Plan for after. I know it seems ages away at the moment, but one day this ‘new normal’ will end. I don’t know if we’ll ever go back to our ‘old normal’, I’d like to think we’ll move to a ‘newer and better normal’ as communities are closer and people are kinder to each other. Whatever happens, one day you’ll be able to once again do what you want, when you want – so what will you do? It’s a great time to do some thinking and planning for the next adventure, your next holiday or even a complete change in direction.
• Make some space. If you’ve shared a motorhome for any length of time you’ll know how quickly you can start to feel on top of each other. No matter if you are in a small studio apartment or a big house, make some space and get out of each others faces. Maybe on of you gets up early and the other gets a lie in, or you go out into the garden one at a time. Just try to give yourself some time and a space that is yours without interruptions.
• Be kind to yourself. You don’t have to be a domestic goddess during this time. If you can make the time, make sure you have plenty of opportunities in your day to do things you enjoy (we know many of you are still working, and some are home-schooling too). Over the next few weeks I am going to sort out the gazillions of photos we’ve taken on our travels, and maybe order a few photos books of them. It’s going to be lovely to be reminded of all the places we’ve been and to fill my days with some great memories. On a smaller scale, when we first got home I gave myself a pedicure and painted my toenails – just that one little bit of pampering has helped keep me happy for over a week every time I take my socks off.

Hopefully this has helped to give you some ideas, but as always we’ love to hear your thoughts and ideas. What are you doing to get you through lock down or self isolation? As I said at the start, everyone is different so we’d love to hear your top tips.

Ju x