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Choosing Happiness

Mantras for Working From Home Now!

04/03/2020

“Shelter In Place” is now the common word. But the true meaning of the words is now widely being felt. We are all realizing how individualized we’ve become as we start to truly live under one roof. Our work is individualized, our food preferences are individualized, our entertainment is widely individualized as well. How would you bring sanity under the circumstances and yet keep your house a thriving environment?

Such sudden and dramatic change takes time to cope up for anyone. No wonder that the Coronavirus aftermath has left employees to Work from home. With the flooding negative information on one side and the recovering patients on the other end, the global workforce is coming to face the new reality that has dawned upon them.

Hence, we at IdeaHelix decided to stay away from the negatives that seem to surround us seemingly unendingly. And focus on the positive mantras that help us make the best out of the times.

Here are a few strategies to those who are overwhelmed and overworked humans.

End the Work Day

The hormone cortisol follows a natural cycle. It rises in the morning allowing you to start fresh and drops in the evening, to allow for restful sleep at night. However, we are working online, we are ordering food, grocery, online and our entertainment is online.

So laptops seem to be open 24 / 7 already. Have a fixed time for your 8 hour day (say 8 AM to 5 PM) and end your day. Head out, explore the neighborhood bit. Maintain social distancing and safety precautions but head out for some (literally) fresh clean air. Often ending the day and heading out to exercise helps the oxytocin flow back on track. And slowly wind your day down to get some quality night sleep and to wake up fresh in the morning. Because this tells about your immune response, hormonal balance and your response to stress. Always know when to relax and rejuvenate.

Keeping physically fit

It is a challenge now. But Workout: As most of the time, sitting through the day, you are prone to forget to move your body. With no exercise, your body is going to release stress hormones which would lead to stress, which results in Tiredness. Spend at Least 20-30 mins a day indulging in high intensity or moderate level workouts.

Pro Tips: End your day almost at the same time and fix your exercise routine almost at the same time everyday as well. For example, if you want to try Cardio workouts lookup LesMills (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMO_XC9w7Lw) on YouTube. As a matter of fact, there are thousands of these videos. Follow a simple app or even a printed sheet.

Diet: To stay physically fit not only requires you to workout but also requires you to follow a healthy diet plan. Follow your meal time strictly. One of key issues for working from home is long meetings and unending conversations. Thus, constant change in the amount of food intake and the meal time might affect your metabolism thereby affecting your sleep cycle. So please keep the meal time the same everyday and most importantly, drink at least 3-4 litres of water daily.

Download Hydro Coach (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.codium.hydrocoach) from AppStore to track your water intake daily.

Foods to Avoid: White Sugar (Lowers your Immunity), Refined Wheat flour (Too much work to your digestive system), Processed foods (Bad Health), Fried foods (Loses its nutrients), Baking Soda, Aerated Drinks, Alcohol etc.,

Foods to Eat: Vitamin C rich Fruits and Vegetables (Oranges, Pineapple, Grapes, Tomatoes, Lemon etc.,) to boost your Immunity, Bitter Gourd, Green leafy vegetables (Spinach rich in Iron), Ginger Tea, Turmeric and Pepper infused Milk, More Proteins (Sprouts, Beans etc.,). Go for Easily digestible foods to help you stay energetic all throughout the day.

How to keep yourself emotionally fit?

We have plenty of alone time. This is a good moment to indulge in meditation as you find our journey inwards with your group. There are thousands of really good resources, apps, youtube videos online that we can use. Just like your work day routine and workout routine, please keep the meditation a routine everyday. A 15 minutes guided meditation session, especially when you are about to sleep, is a good way to refresh your mind everyday.

ProTip: Meditation is without expectations of anything in return. It is a training process to turn yourself into your own mind’s observer. Treat all your emotions as cars passing by, and you lie down and simply observe your own emotions passing by, using your breath as your guiding tool. You can find awesome self guided meditation by Deepak Chopra in Spotify (https://www.spotify.com/ ), Calm (https://www.calm.com/ ) etc., Be an observer while your thoughts float across your mind.

How to keep yourself mentally fit?

Reading: Not everyone is a ready reader. Let us keep that fact. For everyone who is trying to stay positive, a simple daily habit of reading for 10-20 minutes everyday sets the pathway for becoming a lifelong reader, learner and leader. Challenge yourself to some crossword puzzles, chess or Go and other online games.

Pro Tip: Some of the great picks are “Emotional Intelligence” by Daniel Goleman, “Thinking Fast and Slow” by Daniel Kahneman, “The 7 Habits of Highly effective people” by Stephen R. Covey etc.,

Let us Make this quarantine period productive in all ways!

“We Shall Overcome”