2020 Wellness Routines To Carry Into 2021
For many, 2020 will go down as a year to forget. Most of us are ready to move on and embrace the hope and optimism a new year brings, especially this time.
2020 was one of the most challenging, turbulent, and trying years of our lifetimes. While the year presented so many challenges, it also highlighted how self-care became essential to maintain our mental and physical health.
Self-care helped get us through it all in different forms: gardening, cooking at home, getting exercise equipment to workout from home, more “me” time or family time without the need for commutes, working from home on your terms (whether that was making a home office or even working from bed). Although we’re moving on from 2020 into a new year, a return to normal is still a ways off. So it's especially important to reassess how we’re taking care of ourselves and think about carrying into 2021 the new routines and practices that can help us maintain our well-being.
Routines Worth Keeping
In 2020, as COVID-19 took hold around the world, many of us adopted new routines to take care of our physical, emotional, and mental health. Here are a few we’ll be maintaining in the year ahead.
Reaching Out
With lockdowns leading to increased isolation, many of us reached out more than we'd ever done before, even calling friends and family we hadn't spoken with in some time.
A few favorite ways we stayed connected in 2020 that we hope to take with us into the new year:
Zoom cocktail hours
Online book clubs
TV/Movie watch parties
Facetime chats with friends
Making dinner together while chatting over screens
Calling friends randomly just to say hi
It would be a shame to let those freshly forged connections go as we move into the new year.
Me Time
With public gatherings and social functions canceled indefinitely, many of us finally figured out how therapeutic "me time" can truly be. Instead of losing sight of that, we should make sure to keep instances of personal pampering and decompression in our sights, even as our social calendars pick back up in 2021.
Afternoon naps
Curling up with a good book
Drawing bubble baths
Trying out new recipes for one
Meditating for 15 minutes a day
Early-morning stretches
Daily workouts
Home-Cooked Meals
With bars and restaurants closed or offering limited services, many of us turned to good old-fashioned home-cooking.
Along the way, we discovered that:
Home-cooked meals are generally cheaper.
Home-cooked meals are often healthier.
Home-cooked meals allow for quiet nights in with the family.
As much as we love dinner out and will continue to support struggling local restaurants with carry-out, we’ll be carrying the benefits of home-cooked meals into 2021 and beyond.
Want to make it more social? You can also take time to recipe swap with family and friends! While cooking the same meals over and over can put you in a rut, exchanging weeknight dinner ideas with friends can keep things spicy, both literally and figuratively!
More Sleep
Interestingly, studies found that people actually slept more during the pandemic:
[Researchers] compared sleep prior to and during stay-at-home orders in 139 students at a university in Colorado who had shifted from in-person classes to remote instruction. The researchers found that the students' nightly sleep duration increased by about 30 minutes during weekdays and 24 minutes on weekends during the stay-at-home period. During this period, 92% of studies got the recommended 7 hours or more of sleep per night, up from 84% prior to the stay-at-home period. (NIH)
A few potential reasons for this shift:
Fewer nights out result in earlier bedtimes.
No morning commute results in later mornings.
If you found yourself fully rested during the pandemic for the first time in a long time, make an effort to carry rhythms of rest and sleep with you into 2021.
Self-Care Is Not Selfish
When discussing self-care strategies, always bear in mind this important truth: self-care is not selfish. It is an aspect of taking care of the community. Only when we are healthy ourselves do we have the strength to function in society, giving us the mental, emotional, and physical foundations necessary to care for others well.
At Jalan, our mission is provide a safe, restorative, and accessible spa experience to give you the space to reflect, take care of your mind and body, and be well. We’re ready to welcome you in 2021 and beyond!