5 Relaxing Activities during Lockdown (Mums Edition)

Work from home can be trying at times when you have a video conference to attend to, along with kids trying to get your attention. Not to mention the incoming WhatsApp messages or Facebook/ Twitter updates on the latest Covid-19 numbers, new red zones, economy outlooks, it’s only normal to feel a tad overwhelmed, mentally and physically.

To help us get through this time strong as ever before, we have curated 5 essential activities to help our fellow moms. These activities are meant for you to have some quiet time alone (do get your partner to help out in the meantime!) to feel empowered, energized and refreshed. If we are used to spending 2 hours on the road daily getting to and fro from work, that’s 2 hours that we can spend on the following.

1. Self-care

Face

Wake up fresh in the morning with a good cleanse, followed by toner and a serum. We love serums as it contains potent active ingredients, some essential ones include peptides, ceramides, retinol or vitamin C. Include a moisturizer in your day routine if you are working with the AC on. While we may be working from home, sunblock is still non-negotiable even for a minimal skincare routine. Whilst it may be tempting to skip it, you don’t want the blue lights emitting from laptops or devices to age your skin. For night time, indulge in those neglected face masks and face oils + facial roller/ gua sha combo. Invest a couple more minutes for these additional steps to wake up with a visibly radiant skin the next morning.

Body

There’s something about body scrub that gives you a satisfying feeling after a thorough (but gentle) exfoliation of dead skin cells. Consider concocting your personalized formula with ingredients that are easily found in your kitchen. At the same time, doing it your own saves you money, and also helps you to be more eco-conscious with the elimination of preservatives and unwanted packagings. Here are some good basics to start off your experimentations:

• Combo 1: 1 cup of fine Himalayan salt + 8 tablespoons of olive oil
• Combo 2: ½ cup of brown sugar + 3-4 tablespoons of coconut oil
• Combo 3: ½ cup of brown sugar + 1 tablespoon of milk powder + 3 tablespoons of avocado oil

2. Meditation

This 5 – 10 minute practice is scientifically proven to enhance neurological functions. While many may shun away from it due to not knowing how, it can happen naturally with practice. The whole idea of it is to quiet down your mind. We may be thinking, is it possible to have zero thoughts running through your head, but that’s not the idea. It’s normal to have thoughts, the key is to not react to them but let the thoughts pass instead. Challenge yourself for 2 weeks; it could make a big difference to your life.

The proven benefits of meditations are:

• Improve in memory and concentration
• Helps with depression or anxiety or stress
• Slows down the aging of the brain

3. Work Out

Keep up with your physical activity indoors. There are countless number of work out videos on YouTube that requires no equipment at all. Mix it up with yoga/ arm/ legs routines that you can rotate daily to avoid feeling monotonous. If all else fails, try planking. It’s one of the simplest and quickest exercises we can do. As a beginner, try to aim for 30 seconds and gradually increase 10 secs each time.

Planking is known to improve:

• Balance
• Body posture
• Metabolism
• Flexibility

4. Reading

When was the last time you picked up a book and gave it your full attention? Instead of scrolling through Instagram before bedtime, why not read instead? Study has shown that reading helps to improve our cognitive function by keeping it mentally stimulated. Aside from improving focus and reducing stress, perhaps the most important of it all is we derive knowledge from reading. Mark Twain famously said “A man who doesn’t read has no advantage over the man who can’t read”. If you don’t know where to start, head to goodreads and find a book that interests you.

5. Writing

Whether you are a stay-at-home mum, or a working home, it’s equally challenging. It takes a champion to run a household efficiently, or having a job and having to run a household. Penning down your thoughts on paper and reorganizing them in order, will help to increase productivity and efficiency. The simple practice of writing helps to transfer the non-tangible complexities onto paper, allowing you to work out the process in a tangible way and regain mental clarity. It can be anything from family scheduling to your own personal career or spiritual goals. Switch out screen time for paper time instead, and you will see a change in your daily life.

Let us use these times to streamline our routines and lifestyle. Pause, reflect, unload and get on with our game plan while we ride it out together. Good luck!

#StayHome #StaySafe