[Rivière]

With everything going on, we either have too much free time, or very little. Fortunately for me I've been placed on furlough and have a lot more free time since gyms are shut.

In the past I've had a client who worked as a teacher. She was always so busy doing things and even worked after hours beyond what she'd get paid for. One day I decided to sit down with her and help her organise some free time for herself because she quite literally didn't have any at all beyond going to the gym for an hour 30 minutes once a week.

A good way of scheduling free time is to:

1. Look at your calendar by month and mark off any specific events like a birthday celebration or a holiday.
2. Look at your calendar by week, and mark off the times you start and finish paid work.
3. Mark off any other additional weekly activities you do such as walking the dog or a weekly food shop.
4. Look at all the free time you have left and consider a day/time you'd like to spend your time doing something nice for yourself.

By something nice I mean having an at-home spa day where you run yourself a nice bubble bath, have a face mask on, paint your nails... or it could be that you go for a walk somewhere new and do some photography, practice a new skill like guitar or knitting, maybe even try video gaming if you've never done it before. The list is endless.

You don't have to use the method above. You could be spontaneous and just suddenly decide to treat yourself to something, or organise a trip somewhere. It doesn't matter how you schedule time for yourself, so long as you remind yourself to do it.

Practicing self-care is important and is a great way to help ease anxiety and reduce stress, even if it's for a short while.