Living through the times of pandemics is not a common thing, it’s not something that happens every year. For many people it’s first, new experience. That’s why a lot of us get frustrated, depressed and scared. No one knows exactly how to deal with it, what to wait from the future, how to protect family members with weak immune system, and so on.. I, myself, faced a lot of unanswered questions and felt very confused. I want to share my experience from the last week of my life in quarantine. With this example, I’d like to tell you that the most important thing in life is balance. Whether it’s a world crisis, or a calm everyday routine, balance is always required. I started my week very actively. Firstly, I was sure that doing as many things as possible will distract me from bad thoughts. Secondly, I was getting very motivated and inspired by few Instagram bloggers I observe. And it worked! I truly had no time to read negative, fake news, to have pessimistic scenarios in my head, to stress-eat. But you know what else I didn’t have time for? To let my mind relax as well as to sleep. The result? By the end of the week I got a total burn out. And at the time of the burn out, a lot of teachers sent academical tasks to do in big quantities. All I wanted to do was sit and cry, and then get proper sleep. But I didn’t even have time for that. I started having very bad mood changes, feeling as if although I’m doing so much I’m still not managing anything. And that dismotivated me, making me even more unproductive. Few advices I’d want to pull out of this: - Sit down and write down fun productive things you love doing that can be performed at home. It can be working out, doing yoga, cooking something new, learning new language, etc - Out of that list choose out 2-3 things that you enjoy the most and do it for a week. Do not feel like if you like all of the things on list, you must do them! You will burn out soon, and won’t do any of them in the end. - Try to find a blogger or a page that motivates personally you. A lot of bloggers motivate to do a lot of fun activities, and show example on themselves, which will probably motivate you. You can also follow their challenges and marathons to make sure you do it often. - Do not compare yourselves to those bloggers! It’s their job. They work on it, they put time in it. We are medical students! We have so many things to handle already. And if you skipped doing something, or can’t do everything that certain blogger or anyone can do, don’t feel bad or guilty! Remember, that everyone admired the fact that you are studying so much to become someone who will be saving lives. - Don’t overwork, but don’t underwork either. If you will sit on sofa and read bad news, you will get yourself into a cycle from which it’s very hard to come out. Distracting your mind and body will help you fight through these times without getting into anxiety. It’s always hard to make a first step. If you can choose laying and watching tv show for whole day or standing up to work out and study, you will always prefer the first option. Anyone will. But if you truly want to feel well and to support your relatives, you must stay strong and push through your limits, at the same time balancing it all out. - I know that a lot of courses weren’t posted online yet. That doesn’t mean it’s a vacation. Most of the subjects have schedules with all the topics and dates posted. Many even have presentations up. You have the books to cover the topics needed. Do it. Because at one point, all teachers will figure out the system and all the topics collected for weeks will fall on your head out of nowhere. That’ll be stressful and hard to handle. And if you will study now, step by step, you’ll be thankful later on. I hope you found something for yourselves in my advices. I believe this is the key to get through the quarantine feeling positive and hopeful as well as being supportive to your loved ones.
Author: Kate
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