According to the experience of an immigrant and digital entrepreneur in times of pandemic.
I am a Venezuelan immigrant and I have lived in Colombia for 2 and a half years. I moved with my husband and my son to the nearest neighboring country due to the governmental and economic situation that our Caribbean country is going through.
With the nostalgia of leaving your land in an almost obligatory way and the desire to go to another place to build a better present and future, we settled in the Colombian capital.
I went from dedicating myself to journalism and radio broadcasting to starting from scratch, so I immediately ventured to exploit my skills and talents and undertook in the digital world, driven by continuing to do what I am passionate about and fills my spirit and also by wanting to be around of my son for as long as possible, to continue dedicating myself completely to his upbringing, especially at this stage in which we have separated from many people we love, friends and family.
As you can estimate, I started my online business before the pandemic, at that time I was totally excited and happy that everything was flowing and on the rise.
Like any new experience, it was exciting, it seemed that he had plenty of energy to give away. I was always at 100% of my capacity and the more work came the better, at the beginning I had to offer a diversity of services, in record time and on budgets that benefited the client much more than me, but I knew that I had to make an initial effort to find the right one balance.
In March 2020 when the pandemic arrived, just as many people suffered emotional decline, it was a time when fear, uncertainty, helplessness and anxiety or stress easily took hold of anyone.
However, what kept me motivated was that the demand for digital marketing services increased dramatically and increased even further as the pandemic progressed, so I was grateful to be in that position where I could still work even though the world was almost paralyzed.
I took this time to study, to prepare myself even more in the area of digital marketing, and I was still full of work, but this time it was not possible to leave the house to breathe and be distracted as in previous times, for a whole year this situation of social isolation made ravages, so fatigue and irritation or sensitivity began to appear. When you work all day sitting in front of the computer, the lack of physical activity is a trigger that should not be ignored.
With ups and downs and as things return to their “new normal” I can say that I have gone through this time successfully, I have learned to let my emotions flow and know them, to understand how to handle them without being dominated by them.
And although we continue with a global pandemic, from time to time we have the chance to go out and sunbathe.
So homework continues for me, and it sure continues for you too, so if we’re going to do this for a long time, we’d better be prepared to take care of our emotional well-being.
That is why I want to share with you these 6 practices that have worked for me.
- The first thing is to establish schedules and to-do lists. Making our body and mind follow a healthy routine can help avoid physical and mental exhaustion. Respect your schedules, and keep the free time necessary to share with the family and especially to dedicate it to yourself. Make lists of tasks that you are sure you can complete that day and go crossing out what is already ready, the fact of crossing out a task and finishing it gives us a feeling of achievement and well-being. So it is best not to saturate and not procrastinate.
- Stay hydrated and eat a balanced diet, this will help you have energy, good spirits and good health, remember that excesses are negative and much more if your physical activity is limited. But there is always something to do, so you can enable your training space.
- Order your spaces and dress according to the occasion to start working. Imagine that you will go to an external office and do everything you would do in it, set aside an office or space exclusively to spend time at work, tidy up your table or desk, put aromatherapy, put on lotion, even the girls’ high heels, and shoes they would wear to go to work the boys. This makes our brain activate and prepare to do all those activities that we have in mind. That will make you feel empowered, useful, and productive.
- Do not multitask although you think you can bear the load, avoid it because perhaps in the short term your exhaustion is serious and generates other health problems. Do homework as much as you can and be grateful for what you do yourself every day even if you feel that it is little.
- Have you heard that phrase that says: “do not take your work home ‘But how to do when we already have work in our home? Once again, respect the limits when finishing your work and dedicate yourself to other activities that promote your well-being.
- Finally, if you feel that you are very saturated, married, exhausted, agitated, or sad and sensitive, the first thing you should do is stop and work on the internal order so that your external order can be reflected. In case you feel that you cannot get out of the plateau, seek professional help.
Understanding that these can be natural periods of time is essential, the difference is in how we react to our emotions, thoughts or messages that the body sends us, when the situation tends to repeat itself.
Finally, try to dedicate yourself to a work at home that makes you happy and in which you do not feel that you are working, so that your energy remains driven by your own motivation. The good moments are enjoyed, the not so good ones are felt, they are learned to handle and they are overcome, trying that the bad moments do not happen is a failure, you would be repressing yourself because that is how we human beings are full of a sea of emotions to understand.
When you are at a breaking point it does not mean that you have lost, translate that into pauses, reflections and then resume your renewed path
Anabel Briceño
Brand Advisor and Copywriter for M.O.T.M.V.
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