I don’t know about you, but life feels like an emotional roller coaster since COVID started. Friends ask how I’m doing and I say, “It can vary from hour to hour and day to day!”
Under normal conditions, my emotional state is fairly stable. I’m a planner with consistent routines each day of the week that contribute to my sense of mental and physical well-being. I attend yoga and Zumba classes, play pickleball with friends, visit my mom every Wednesday, spend the weekend with my granddaughters, have lunch and go for walks with friends.
Just like all of you, those simple pleasures have been taken away from us. Life feels out of balance and unpredictable. Uncertainty is my nemesis. Not being able to make plans or have any sense of when this COVID pandemic will end has thrown me and everyone I know into a tailspin.
The balance that I work so hard to achieve is being challenged everyday by new restrictions imposed by local and state officials. So I continue to create as much normalcy in my life as possible. One of the most satisfying ways I achieve this is by continuing to hold meetings with our GaGa Sisterhood.
Getting together with our GaGa Sisterhood is one of the great sources of joy in my life. During pre-COVID times, we met every other month at members’ homes to listen to speakers or have conversations about being modern grandmas.
Now through Zoom technology, we continue to meet and connect with each other for our stimulating conversations. Being able to check-in and share the joys and challenges of this new reality truly nourishes my soul. I find great comfort and joy in seeing the faces of my GaGa Sisters and learning how they’re finding ways to stay connected to their grandchildren, family, and friends. They’re also sharing some of the simple activities that help them stay sane during this period of forced isolation.
During our last meeting, we talked about keeping balance in our lives. In order to achieve balance or wholeness, you need to make an intentional effort to examine the different facets of your life.
When I trained to be a life coach in 2000, I studied the wheel of life — a tool that lets you look at the different facets of your life and see which areas are out of balance. Once you recognize the areas that you want to improve or bring into balance, you can look for solutions to achieve that balance.
I asked our GaGas to share the areas where they felt the highest and lowest levels of satisfaction. Then we each chose an area that needed improvement and wrote down one simple action we could take to bring greater satisfaction to that area.
Here is our list of simple steps for keeping balance in your life:
- Play the piano
- Read philosophers
- Listen to a new podcast
- Learn Photoshop
- Take a Spanish class
- Call 5 friends
- Send a get well card to a friend
- Send a video cartoon
- Send funny Bitmojis to 5 friends
- Go for a bike ride
- Cook with spinach
- Walk on the beach
- Take out my weights and put them in a visible place
- Toss out old clothes I no longer wear
- Post affirmations on mirrors
- Start working on a jigsaw puzzle
- Make a watercolor birthday card
- Look at pieces of cloth for a quilt
- Finish knitting a sweater
- Write in a gratitude journal
- Sign up for a webinar on a topic you’re curious about
- Try a new recipe
- Learn to meditate
- Buy a new lipstick
- Light a candle at dinner
Of course, there are many parts of our lives that these little steps can’t repair. But if we can take a few small steps every day to keep our physical, spiritual, and emotional well-being in balance, it will help us to get through these uncertain times and feel like we have some control over our lives.
Tell us one small step that helps you keep balance in your life in the comment box.
