Fun & healthy things to do this weekend if you’re still social distancing

If you allow yourself to get pulled into the negativity and gloom of COVID-19, it can damage your outlook on life. Don’t let that happen. 

Instead, evaluate the situation, writes the National Alliance on Mental Illness. Is the nature of your crisis dire? Too many times, we rely on social media, the 24-hour news cycle, or Google to get our information. Often, we only look at one side of the story. 

If we are prone to fear, we will find information that feeds that fear. 

Granted, we don’t intentionally look for things that instill fear. However, in our quest for “facts” on the situation – in this case, COVID-19, we subconsciously find articles that feed our fear.

Let’s face it: most of us hate uncertainty. Hate it with a passion. To add insult to injury, we are told not to get close to anybody. If you’re an introvert, that’s not going to be a problem. If you’re a social person, it will not be fun. 

One way to help with our attitudes toward social distancing is to reframe the phrase. A good friend of mine, David Chaddock, runs the Center Point Counseling center in Indianapolis. David says that, in reality, we aren’t talking about social distancing. We are, however, talking about physical distancing. That means staying six feet away from another person. It’s a physical distance, not social. 

We need the social connection to others during times of crisis. To protect our mental health, we can’t lose that connection. Technology allows us to stay connected, if not physically, in other meaningful, tangible ways. Facetime calls, Zoom video, Skype, and other similar apps will enable us to have face to face contact and keep our social connection.