8 Self-care Habits We Have Evolved During Corona Isolation

During the Corona isolation, we have evolved eight very valuable self-care habits. These new routines helped us so much to cope with our unusual everyday life and all the worries of this difficult time. Since they have proven to be extremely effective for our well-being, we take them as big learnings. We also decided to integrate them into our daily routine from now on and will continue working on them in the future.

Since self-care is so important for a balanced and happy life, we would like to share them with you in this blogpost:

1. Consuming more consciously

As you know, conscious and sustainable consumption is very important to us. But the past few weeks have strengthened this awareness very much. We are convinced that regionalism, sustainability, and environmental awareness have become even more important as a result of the Corona crisis and we hope tremendously that the motto “Support local businesses and buy local” will be firmly anchored in our lives.

In order to protect our beautiful planet and boost the domestic economy, it is now more important to question your own consumption behavior:

• What and why do I buy it?
• Is this really necessary?
• Was this product produced regional? Is it seasonal?
• Moreover, was it produced sustainable, organic, and under fair conditions?

We should ask ourselves these questions in all aspects of life (food, clothing, cosmetics, transport, furnishing, and also traveling). Yeah, we know that it’s not easy to find sustainable regional brands that are affordable as well.

To be in the know you hvae to do some research. But we are sure that you will find the perfect brands for you after a while if you are willing to do so.

As we did with our new favorite sustainable clothing lines Lovjoi (for women) & Thokk Thokk (for women and men) for example. We discovered them a few weeks ago and immediately fell in love. More brands we really like can you find in our here!

It is clear to us that not all of these factors can always be taken into account. Of course, this is also a question of possibilities and money. We ourselves are slowly integrating a more conscious lifestyle regarding our consumption step by step into our habits.

But we hope that this crisis has shown everyone how important conscious consumption is for us, our society, our environment and a good future!

2. Being grateful: One of the self-care habits that makes happy automatically

Despite all the terrible events of the past few weeks, Corona definitely showed us one thing:

We have so many things we could be grateful for:

• For finding each other (and not driving each other crazy during isolation).
• Living in such a beautiful, safe country (despite the issues we have here as well).
• Having such a supportive loving family.
• For the fact that we have friendships that get another meaning in such a time.
• Being healthy and having a health system in the event of an illness that would not let us down.
• For leading a lifestyle that allows further development, self-care habits, self-fulfillment, and traveling.
• For having a home in which we feel comfortable and safe.

This list could go on forever. These facts alone have shown us that many things are self-evident for us, but they actually have a very special value which we always should appreciate!

We absolutely want to maintain this awareness and Jojo has started a gratitude diary in which she keeps a daily record of what she is thankful for.

3. Giving something back

Focusing on the positive aspects of life gives you joy, satisfaction, and helps to get through difficult times.

That focus automatically motivates us to give something back. In addition, to care more about those in our society, who have not as much luck and chances as we have.

During our isolation we helped our neighbors and we are considering a lot on how we could support the people in our environment, who need it the most. It doesn’t always have to be great deeds. Even tiny actions can have a deep impact. A simple smile or an honest “How are you?” can already make the difference.

We think this aspect of helpfulness and selflessness got a new meaning during the corona time. Therefore we hope this value will remain in the future and each and every one of us will find ways to give something back.

Let us go through the world with grateful hearts and open eyes. Let us be active in charity and with helping hands and support those who need it so badly!

We welcome tips and recommendations for organizations that are close to your heart and that you think should be supported – just write them in the comments below.

In the meantime here is a list of regional NGOs that do a great job in our area.

Every single one of us can make a difference!

4. Accepting our own feelings – one of the most important self-care habits we evolved

The last few weeks have been characterized by terrifying news, uncertainty, and fear.

Nevertheless, we always had the feeling (and put pressure on ourselves) that we should stay positive and happy. Because. it’s a fact, that we have been lucky living in Austria together, staying in a nice flat with a garden and being healthy. Of course, that’s true.

But does this fact completely denies us any right to feel fear, grief, frustration, or panic?

The greater the obligation to feel good and to have a positive mindset, the greater the inner struggle and the worse we felt at the end of the day.

One of the most important self-care habits, was that we have learned to accept our feelings without feeling guilty during the last few weeks. There are no good or bad emotions. All feelings are connected and they make us all human. And it’s human to have ups and downs and to experience different feelings during such a hard time.

Self-care habits lead to self-love: Start with accepting your feelings!

Accepting and respecting our own emotions does not mean giving up without a fight. It means that we give ourselves time and space to allow these feelings to exist and unfold. Once we understand them, we decide if there is anything we can do to improve the situation (and we found that sometimes it just goes by itself). It’s simply a strategy of self-acceptance.

In the end, pain and struggle always disappear and turn into positive emotions. In the sense of our self-love and self-care habits, it is essential to be open and honest about this process.

We have learned to be able to interpret our feelings, listen to them, and consciously perceive them.

After all, if we feel good or bad, that’s what makes us human – and in the end, it’s always the positive things that outweigh the negative ones, believe us!

5. Becoming creative

From a start-up to a traditional company, the crisis has unleashed creative processes. Changes that usually take months, if not years, of preparation under normal conditions, took just a few days during the pandemic. A lot of self-employed and small businesses found new, digital ways to continue existing.

Our creativity and skills have definitely grown during this time!

Creating indoor at home content even though we actually have a travel account on Instagram?

Yes, it works and it’s even fun! And this quick, new ideas and ways of thinking got developed!

Those creative processes stimulated our own further development and rose our personal skills to the next level.

Fabian has developed his Photoshop skills through online courses on Skillshare(*). This online platform offers many different options to improve your creative skills in various domains to the next level. However, Jojo has recently started doing Yoga on a regular basis by taking an online class on youtube. And she finally took the time to play the guitar again!

*affiliate link: 2 month for free for all Skillshare courses

We have inevitably discovered some new areas for us that we enjoy a lot and which encourage our productivity.

Rethinking, developing new perspectives, and being open to new opportunities are definitely key-learnings we particularly acknowledged through this time!

This current innovational push, which we are pursuing at our own pace, has opened up entirely new paths:

Creative new ways which lead to change and change that leads to further development.

6. Writing a Journal: Our daily self-care reflection routine

Especially during these challenging times, self-reflection became so important to us. Writing a diary on a daily basis helped us to get insights into how often we had the same thoughts and habits.

Moreover, we could monitor how we were feeling, what concerned us, and what went through our minds. In terms of living together, it was also a valuable insight into our own emotions towards each other as well (and yeah we still love each other – but this intense time was for sure a test of our relationship).

The more often and the more regular we write, the better our attention becomes to the here and now. So we create valuable moments when we break through our behavioral patterns through our self-reflection.

For us, the long-term capture of memories is secondary. We find it more important to practice psycho-hygiene and to strengthen our health. Therefore, the most valuable thing for us is to practice self-reflection and productive self-criticism.

Furthermore it helps to change perspectives, to look at things differently, and to reconsider and develop ourselves.

We can highly recommend the 6-minutes diary (6 Minuten Tagebuch*) for more mindfulness, happiness, and productivity

This is what helps us to live a more conscious and grateful life and starts a process of further self-improvement.

*affilitate link to Thalia a local Austrian book store

7. Going offline: Self-care on point

Social media and the Internet, in general, have definitely shaped our isolation period. It was our way to stay connected and up-to-date. Many things that were previously offline have been converted to an online format.

To be honest, the flood of news, statements and productive initiatives have also caused us a lot of stress. Therefore, we started to use social media, news channels, and our cell phones very deliberately.

This results in a lot of offline time that we can use in the sense of valuable self-care habits. Our pointed online time has also resulted in us using these channels more selectively and focusing on media that influence us positively and offer real added value. The focus on our own well-being became our priority.

With digital detox we create more time for ourselves, our hobbies, our relationship, and for personal growth.

Mobile off? Conscious media consumption? We will definitely continue to do so in the future!

However, doing nothing is fine as well! It’s not necessary to be productive all the time. Sometimes you just have to simply be and exist.

Being offline doesn’t only mean turning off your phone, but also to leave the pressure to perform and create behind and allow yourself just having a good time.

Go for a walk and enjoy nature, read a book, take a nap, watch the clouds passing by, eat unhealthy delicious food, and enjoy yourself!

Do something for you and your soul without any pressure!

8. Working out regularly: Self-care at its finest!

As you know, we went to the gym on a regular basis to keep ourselves fit before the COVID-19 crisis. Stuck at home, there weren’t many options for that kind of physical activity anymore.

So we tried very hard to bring regularity into our morning home workouts. They helped us a lot to cope with the home office situation and emotional stress. Moreover, they became an important self-care habit we evolved during the Corona quarantine.

So for all of you who don’t like to hit the gym, there are plenty of opportunities to work out at home as well (with free online tutorials for example).

You are asking why the f*** you should do that? Here is the reason why we enjoy our sweaty workouts so much:

• Training makes our heads free and helps us to focus
• Moreover, it makes us happy (during sports the body releases the hormones dopamine and serotonin, the so-called happiness hormones)
• Of course, it boosts our coordination ability, our agility, and our strength
• As we both like to work out, doing it side by side, brings us closer together
• Sports help to tune the body (and as we are in the mid-thirties this is a nice side effect)

Self-care habits conclusion:

The past few months have been difficult and challenging, and we are aware that the crisis isn’t over yet and will continue in the future as well.

Nevertheless, due to the situation in the past few weeks, we have learned a lot about ourselves and our values. We have once again realized how important self-care is and how many aspects actually make up a conscious life.

We will definitely keep the 8 self-care habits we have evolved during Corona and integrate them into our everyday life in the future.

What the Corona period showed us above all:

Self-care is the key to a balanced happy and conscious life that will affect your future and moreover the development of the whole society in a very positive way!