Lessons from Liz
Liz, our house manager at our female recovery transitional house, opened the Facebook live motherhood meeting she led by discussing what recovery is like during these times and how to stay positive through it all. The class started with a devotion from The Language of Letting Go by Melody Beattie and one of her powerful quotes:
“We are the greatest thing that will ever happen to us. Believe it. It makes life much easier”.
Self-love is so important. We need it to get through our regular lives, let alone being in quarantine. Make sure you are not comparing yourself to others during this period and what they may be doing. You are exactly where you need to be to grow as a person – grow you and do not envy others. If you start by making yourself the first priority in your life, then everything will start to fall into place.
During this time, it is important to be grateful for something. Sometimes it’s hard to keep your mind on something positive. So, before you get up, Liz suggests to make sure you say three things that you are grateful for. Whether that’s your kids, health, or religion; it doesn’t matter as long as you are grateful for what you think of.
Make sure you are also strengthening your bonds with yourself and others. It is important to keep your mental health in check during quarantine. It’s easy for someone to fall into mental illness while in isolation. Anxiety symptoms can fire up when there is so much going on in the media, while not being able to do much about it. Depression symptoms can become worse when someone is not able to leave their house or feel safe. This is why it is important to make sure you are saying what you are grateful for. Keep loving yourself throughout the quarantine.
Now is the time to strengthen bonds with everyone in your life. Since we are all forced to stay in our homes, now is the time to connect with the people you hold close and stay connected – call them, facetime, video message, send them a letter.
We can finally have some time to calm down our lives so use this time to benefit your emotional and mental health.
Stay positive during this time. One piece of advice Liz had was to try not to complain about what is going on. It is especially hard to not complain these days, but all we can do is wait it all out, so no sense in complaining. Someday this will all end, and we’ll be able to leave our houses. But, for now it is important to be positive. Complaining will always bring about negativity. If you constantly complain, you are only focusing on the negative. So, whenever you think anything negative say something positive in return.
As said before, the quarantine is stressful. Recovery can be especially hard, so make sure you are meeting your own needs. Don’t be afraid to reach out for help. Remember that we are all more alike than we are different! We just have had different experiences! It is important to not run from your feelings. If you feel anxious or stressed or depressed, make sure you talk about it. Sharing your feelings helps so much when you’re feeling down.
“You only have so much emotional energy for each day, don’t fight battles that don’t matter” and “don’t stumble on something behind you”.