Last week, following my highly successful post and series over the previous weeks, I posed the question:

💥💥💥 What are your top tips for overcoming the monotony and stress of the Covid restrictions, so that you still feel energised and have a sense of achievement? 💥💥💥

I had a fantastic response, here are the highlights from your ideas and tips 💡 on both, which all felt neatly into almost all the things we talk about in our Energy Triangle:

Energy from Purpose

John talked about the importance of helping others which I turn raises our spirits. But he acknowledged we need to look after ourselves first to do this.

Kris talked about the energy he gets helping start-ups. He also talked about the importance of his young family.

This leads neatly onto Social Energy;

Social Energy

Hayley talked about regular FaceTime calls with close family.

Kevin added he was actively catching up with people as well and fitting that into the day carefully.

David talked about the importance of a Peer he used for support and connection.

Geoff added there is wealth in the health of skyping/Facetiming or any form of virtually seeing the other person; that can brighten their day or/and yours?
And Celia added even just a text/message etc to someone to let them know they are being thought of makes a difference - brightens their day and a random act of kindness is good for the health.

Social Energy with Animals

Karen feels lucky that she has a horse, so must tend to him every day.   

Drew is looking forward to meeting the neighbour’s new dogs.  

Exercise

Dan recommends exercise and fresh air. He’s a reasonably new runner and prefers a weekend long-run. This clears his head for the business week ahead and he doesn’t have bad Mondays anymore. Dan’s not alone, Hayley says “Running has definitely been my saviour” She ran her first half marathon a couple of weeks ago and said, “It is time alone to focus on something basic...breathing, moving forwards and progress”. Kevin is a more seasoned runner and uses running as a key anchor activity.

Phil, David, Charley and Lee all recommend the practice of walking, Phil said “I go for a walk every day to buy a newspaper. Mostly I don’t read the paper but it’s reasonably priced exercise! 🤣”

As well as walking, Charley has been moving more, focussing on yoga and workouts. She’s in the company of Lee (jump-rope 🏋️‍♀️ in the office) and Claire (Les Mills International On-Demand HIIT session!👊, fitting them in between clients!)

Sleep

Charley has also been prioritising her sleep, and said that “Compared to where I was a few months ago this has dramatically improved and it's obvious that this makes a huge difference”.

Celia also recommends focussing on a good night’s sleep.

Nutrition

Charley has focussed on reducing alcohol consumption and increasing water intake, a sure-fire way to not only improve our nutrition but also our sleep and focus. Celia also talks about the importance of a good diet.

Effectiveness

Kevin has been separating the weekends, i.e. do different stuff and set up tasks/plans for each week, to avoid groundhog day. Whereas Ollie finds music helps him focus, finding that vocal-free deep house/drum and bass/classical work best for focused work.  He also uses a loosely similar method to the Pomodoro technique - doing short, timed bursts.  He says “Each little completed task gives you a nice little dopamine boost!”  

Fiona, Rebecca and Nathan, all offer some “Zoom” tips.  Fiona says ”If I'm having video meetings I suggest they finish at 50 mins rather than an hour or 25 mins instead of 30 mins.  This gives you a mental break before the next one and time to walk about” Rebecca has recognised the need to leave a gap between calls for home-schooling questions! Whereas Nathan prefers to group any zooms back-to-back, leaving him a clear window to “eat some frogs 🐸🐸🐸”.

Mindfulness

Kevin recommends only looking at the news once a day, and never look at it before sleep. David gave a brilliant example of how to be mindful in any situation, “When I was 21, at a party, I looked around me at all the people felt very alone. It was Autumn, I looked out the window and saw some leaves dropping from a tree. I could probably find that tree today. I started counting the leaves dropping off the tree, must have counted 40 or 50”.

Lee has been using a mindfulness App and also some long sessions on his games console.

Fiona loves landscape photography and has found that taking her camera out to take pictures of Norfolk has been very uplifting.  She can look at those photos when she wants to see a beautiful image.

Michael has made time to do things he enjoys in the evenings and weekends. He added “Rather than a nice to have I’ve carved out dedicated time each day or week to do certain activities I enjoy. Whatever you enjoy, reading, drawing, walking, board games, watching a movie or gaming; make some dedicated time for it and allow yourself that time. Everything else can wait, don’t feel guilty about the other things you could or should be doing, enjoy some downtime!”

Elke suggested a focus on breathing exercises, saying “I am also spending more time doing breathing exercises, great to regulate the nervous system in general during these challenging times” She also likes to do tree hugs  🏝 😊.

Celia also suggests meditating, mindfulness, being creative and pacing for good mental health.

Hayley talked about the distraction of a 2- year old saying “Playdoh, stories, stickers are all a good way to switch off for a few minutes”

Resilience

Drew suggested we sometimes need to kick things out of scope. He said, “Be realistic about the working environment we're all in and have no shame about cutting the lowest priority stuff out”.

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