quote-Mike Chen

As a caring community we all are coming together by staying at home to help prevent the spread of the coronavirus pandemic. A big part of being a part of a community is caring for our families. A family can be people you are related to, friends, or even your co-workers. During this time, we can all reach out to ask how they are and share caring ideas when someone needs help. Unified Caring Association (UCA) has a Pinterest board that is filled with ideas for fun family activities, tips and tricks for setting up a new lifestyle while homebound, and even suggestions for schooling! We have been researching all of these and have suggestions to help us all as a family and a community that cares.

Empowerment through Health.

Empower yourself instead of stressing yourself out by getting physically active. Exercise can be in the form of walking, building a gym at home with an obstacle course, or routinely doing yoga and dancing. Self-care is a great foundation to build on while staying healthy and at home.

A big part of empowering yourself is eating healthy. Nutritious meals can boost your immune system and fuel a more resilient mind to work from home or help with your kids schooling while homebound. Eating well includes staying hydrated with water, teas, or other favorite beverages.

Routines

Making a routine is extremely important at this time. We are all learning new boundaries, how to work from home, and how to interact with others while staying 6 feet (or 2 meters) apart. Start with getting some good sleep. Create a schedule for yourself  by first deciding when you want to get up and what time you want to go to bed.

When deciding what you are going to fill your day with, take a look at balancing responsibilities with break times to recharge. When will you have your coffee? What time of day is lunch? Make a set time for the end of the work day when we close the laptop, put away school books, and connect with your caring community. During this time we might check in with the news, and try to keep that time in short stints to not overwhelm our brains. But go ahead and fill up on all the positive news you can take!

Be Kind & Have Fun!

It is becoming more apparent that we are needing to focus on being kind to ourselves and to others. Acts of kindness that we read about or do can help promote happy feelings. How does this look? If we are tired, we can take an extra nap or meditate to refocus our brains and boost our energy. If we want to share caring with others, we can create a fun video chat to hangout with others and celebrate our friendship.

One great way to celebrate kindness is to do something creative. UCA has a great way to connect by coloring the stress away and sharing those pieces of art to create a gallery of kindness. Coloring and being creative is a great way to connect and have fun!

Reassuring Children 

Many of us have younger family members or children who are feeling the strain of being homebound. “Encourage children to express their feelings… Provide them with information. Be honest, but be sure to emphasis the positive. And of course, remember that children may need extra love and attention.” (ParentInfo)

It can be hard to remain socially isolated. The additional kindness and communication can assure kids that everything is being done to help them feel safe and they have a community that cares for them as well as every person. If we all follow the rules to stop transmission of the virus together, there is no reason that we cannot beat this sickness together.

Family is a community that cares!

We are all being called to do extraordinary things for the collective caring of our families, communities and the world in response to the unique coronavirus pandemic. Whether home bound or providing critical services, everyone is stretched to adapt like never before.  All of us are in this together. Now more than ever, caring is what we need most. Caring for our self. Caring for others around us. Life is going to require new routines, resilience and compassion. We invite you to join us in creating a caring movement to respond to local needs.

Would you like to read more about UCA caring resources? We have other blogs on Unified Caring Association, caring in our communities, and caring the UCA way! If you would like caring messages throughout the week, follow us on Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, YouTube, and Twitter!