Falmouth Academy's School Counselor Carol DiFalco provides the following emotional/social health tips for families that are home-based or self-quarantined:
• set regular waking and sleeping times
• limit leisure screen time (you will likely have academic screen time expected of you). Better yet, set aside two or three 2 hour blocks of time when you dock your phone.
• Set goals for each day - learning something new, projects you have been putting off, academic commitments, a new recipe you want to try...
• exercise every day - mental wellbeing is directly tied to your physical wellbeing. This is a great time to make self-care a priority.
• Go outside every day. Take a walk, do yard work, prepare your next garden, etc
• If you are self-quarantined text, call, or FaceTime a friend every day. Stay connected to people you care about even while the platform is different.
• If you are not self-quarantined take time to check on your friends and neighbors, particularly those that may live alone.
• Give someone who lives in your home a hug as often as they will let you - human beings are wired for physical connection.
• Keep a positive attitude. This is a temporary situation and it requires all of us to bring our best selves to help one another through it. While we need to be responsible and minimize the rapid spread of this virus by using the best practices, advised by the World Health Organization
https://www.who.int/, we also need to use our humanity as agency to ensure we maintain our communities and connections for our own wellbeing, as well as one another’s.