De-stress Rituals

This morning we talked about destressing rituals.  Whether it’s planning your day before launching into it, ringing chimes at the end of the day to leave work where it belongs, or listening to a special playlist to calm down at night.  Rituals are useful tools, that can be especially impactful when the lines between Home and Work are so blurry.

The truth is right now things are stressful and scary, and many of us are greaving for what was once our “normal.”  There are things we can control and things we can’t, and trying to remember that helps, but also taking time to be ok with the fact that these are trying times and it is alright to be upset.  Life right now is hard.

There are plenty of great articles out there, like this one from Medium and this one from inc about how and why to create rituals to leave work where it belongs.

Routines (rituals under a more secular name) can help us with that.  They can keep us from ruminating. They help us set boundaries between our work and our home lives.  They can help us get into a flow state faster and work more productively. They can give us a moment of peace or help us leave things we can’t control alone.

Many of our cobblers are adding walks to their routines to destress.  Going outside and getting some air (from a socially responsible distance) can help you recenter.  We talked about tetris, and another game called blendoku which can help give us a break when things get too rough.  Most of us are trying to limit our news intake and using apps like RescueTime to keep us from constantly scrolling through Facebook, Twitter, etc to get the latest updates.

As a sidebar, one cobbler likened the news to food.  Be careful how much you consume, know where it comes from, and avoid too many additives.  We thought this was pretty sound advice.

Another bit of sound advice is to get dressed even when working from home.  Not taking care of yourself can foster depression. It’s easy to say “f*ck it” and sleep in, eat straight from the fridge, and live in four-day-old sweats, but please don’t do it!  If you get up and get dressed (even if it’s in stretchy pants) you can help physically set your intention for the day. One cobbler is aspirationally wearing workout gear, another is dressing in yoga pants on the bottom and work clothes on the top.  Comfortable and still camera ready!  

We also noticed that while we’re all getting through our days, it’s getting harder to tell a Thursday from a Monday or a Saturday.  One cobbler is looking for ways to create liminal landmarks in the days to help her family distinguish one day from the next. Taco Tuesdays, Science Wednesdays, Cobblers’ Collective Thursdays!

This morning was a reminder that while things are crazy in this moment, one day we will have a new normal.  We will adapt. And in the meantime, we’re all here to support each other.

There’s a story about a carpenter who had a rough day.  When he got back home he touched a tree by his front door with both hands.  When asked about it, he says “That’s my trouble tree, I hang my troubles here every night before I go inside, and when I come out in the morning to pick them up, there aren’t nearly as many as I remember hanging up the night before.”

Having a group of people to help you hang your troubles up is one of the reasons cobblers exists.  And this morning, we’re grateful for it.