How to Take Care of Each Other

By: Shamia and Shamaicah

The current global health crisis has brought changes to our lives in more ways than one and especially in the way we create and maintain social relationships. Now more than ever, it has become very important to maintain our relationships with friends and family as healthy as we can to give and receive the support that we all need to keep going on with our lives. Indeed, social distancing is very important in this difficult time, but it doesn’t equate to distancing ourselves from our social circle. Here are some tips that could help in the continuity of our social relationships even online!

1.) Look after yourself first to look after others better

How can you possibly interfuse with the people you love if you are sick yourself? That’s why self-care is very important before anything else in this deed. Keep yourself hydrated. There are so many fun ways of making a refreshing beverage without worrying about Urinary Tract Infection and other kidney related problems. We can add up fresh fruits like apples, oranges, lemons or even grapefruits to a glass of cold water just to cheer your taste buds a little. Rest a little. You may be so shell-shocked with academic responsibilities now and as much as you share the same incumbency, you also need not to force your body to function. You can just hug that Panpan stuffed toy or just cover yourself with a blanket of bliss for a couple of minutes and get back to business. Keep up with your personal hygiene program and inspire the household to be clean always. Now, you name a few.

2.) Make physical distancing fun

If we go outside to buy something at a department store, think about how we ought not to hug our friend we haven’t seen for months since the outbreak. It’s a little drooping, right? But we can always send them signals by replacing hugs and handshakes with waves, smoochies, or Korean  heart gestures. We find these alternatives emotionally zestful without even ostentatiously realizing, we already helped in the flattening of the curve.

3.) Extend a helping hand online

Make sure to check on your friends or classmates especially if they are showing signs of stress and depression or going through difficulties. In the new form of remote teaching and learning, it is important to reach out to those who need help and support. Ask them how are they doing with the online modular activities, are they updated with the new instructions in Moodle, for how many times have they attended Jitsi or Discord meetings since then? You can send them the learning materials privately, inform or remind them of the deadlines and other upcoming announcements online. These simple acts of benevolence for those in desperate need are appreciative and delightful. Now, everyone would be wishing to have you as a good friend.

4.) Combat misinformation online

Surely there are a lot of fake news hogging the headlines of our online community. It is too frustrating to see people believing in hoaxes and conspiracies from irresponsible social media users. Always remind your friends and relatives to question the reliability of the source. People just can't rely on YouTube videos alone, can they? Help them filter messages or posts that are questionable, suspicious and untrustworthy for them not to be misguided by preposterousness.

5.) Share positivity 

Send funny memes or gifs in your group chats to ease tension lavishly. Share positive news and readings like verses or prayers so when friends see this in their newsfeeds, they'd be invigorated to do their best always. You can also recommend others to listen to a song which recently made you feel better about yourself and the predicament. Music can help healing cracked and furious hearts with its splendiferous melody and rhapsodic message. Inspire others to think pink, have faith, trust the process and whatever happens, live. But while sharing positivity, let us also not forget that negative emotions are valid.

This all will pass before we even notice it.  Until then, let us all be well and stay indoors for our safety. These all wouldn’t be much for a pixie dust when the storm's over.