A huge “thank you”  to the Community Acupuncture patients who shared what they’ve been doing to bolster their physical, emotional, and spiritual health. -Sending love, Thiera

Stay Connected Virtually

• “Use Zoom, Skype or other FaceTime apps to see and interact with friends and loved ones. Knowing the people we care about are safe matters a lot in terms of minimizing stress. Seeing and interacting with someone helps them too.”- Natalia V.
• “I have been using Google docs to write stories one paragraph at a time with a few friends. We take turns, it’s fun because none of us know where the story is going.” -Cordie N.

Find Creative Ways to get Active

• “..[I] use my bicycle to do grocery shopping. Which ends up being a real blessing because …I get fresh air. I think it is important to get outside, especially in the sunshine…Nature is a purifier and a tranquilizer, so I have enjoyed that. It brings peace to the soul and a smile to the face.” -Lin P.
• “I’ve been doing a lot of at home yoga to try to maintain my health, also running up and down my back stairs.”-Cordie N.
• “Since I can’t get massage anymore I purchased a Theracane, which has been helpful for releasing some muscle tension.” -Cher H-T.

Take time away from technology

• “Because so much of what we do now involves computers, it feels more important than ever to relish the off-screen time. I’ve been spending more time reading physical books, rather than reading online, which feels relaxing.” – Rebekah H.
• “Don’t read the news too much. I have family all over the world right now and for the first couple of weeks I was obsessively reading everything I could about every place. I realized that I was stressing myself out over things that I had absolutely no control over and found it much more helpful to just read what was needed and check in with loved ones routinely.” – Natalia V.

Look for What You Can Learn from this Situation

• “I …believe one of the silver linings of this event is that people are pushed into slowing down.” -Lin P.

Focus on doable tasks 

• “…laundry, work projects, grocery lists, homework help etc. With everything so out of control, having lists you can check off really help.” -Natalia V.

Create a schedule

• “I spend the first two hours of each day free of technology (I’ve stopped looking at my phone first thing in the morning.). I light incense and sit with a cup of tea and either journal or read from an inspirational book – often I do both. Then I meditate before beginning the work day.”- Rebekah H.
• “My partner and I still stick to our normal wake up and bedtime routines. This helps maintain our normal sleep patterns and really helps ward off depression, anxiety and other stress because sleep is restorative.” -Natalia V.

Be Gentle on Ourselves

• “…just reminding myself it’s okay to not be productive (in fact it’s normal that I feel less motivated than I normally do) because of what’s going on.” -Cher H-T.