How a Daily Routine Helps

Hello everyone, welcome to the Said in Therapy Podcast. Have you ever considered going to therapy and you ended up not going? My question is why? In my humble opinion, I believe everyone can benefit from therapy. In fact, I believe everybody should go at least once in their life.

My name is Iman Tohami, and I'm a psychologist. This podcast tells you all about everyday cases with everyday people who have everyday problems and difficulties, and sometimes they carry around really deep wounds. These are their stories.

So I want to finish off the week with a question I got the other day, and I believe it's very relevant. Here it goes. Hi, Selen Therapy. I've struggled with depression for as long as I can remember. I only recently started therapy and I thought I saw improvement.

Now with the situation going on, I really don't know what to do with myself. The writer goes on with reasons why she cannot continue therapy online because of her insurance policies. But in essence, the question is a very important one, even if we ourselves have never struggled with depression before.

So for today, I want to give you a few tips on how to structure your life, your daily routine to be exact, in order to maintain a sense of normality. Because routine anchors us. No matter what's going on in your day, knowing that we will have dinner around 6 p.m.

and going to bed around 10, let's say, this can be a real comfort. The certainty of our routine can help us manage the uncertainty that life throws up. Coping with unpredictable periods of time can feel more doable when we have a little bit of structure in place to look to.

But also, a daily routine reduces stress. Trying to remember things can be really stressful and can fill our brains up, and it can be incredibly overwhelming. When we have a routine, a lot of things we do day to day slot in.

We don't really have to think about it anymore. For example, when we are stable in our daily routine, we really don't have to remember to brush our teeth in the morning because it becomes a habit. Routine can take the guesswork and uncertainty out of bits of our day, which can allow us to feel more in control and less stressed.

But it also creates daily habits that are actually very good for us. Having a routine can help us to cultivate a positive daily habit and to prioritize, let's say, self-care. Organizing our time gives us the opportunity to build in blocks of time for things that are important to us.

This can allow us to build in daily habits that help us with our mental health. It could include things like time to relax or regular bedtime. When they are part of our routine, it can make it easier to keep up with them because we have the time to do them and they give us a sense of new normal.

The next thing that we mostly underestimate is sleep. So I want to talk to you about sleep because I personally struggle with that. And we all know sleep is really important for our mental health because going to bed and waking up at a similar time most days allows our body to get used to it.

And we create our own sleep and wake cycle and set our sleep and wake clock accordingly. Which means our body gets accustomed to the new situation and we find physical comfort in that. Especially if we build in some time to wind down before we go to bed each day, we should begin to find that we find it easier to get to sleep and we sleep better once we are asleep.

Especially in the time of the pandemic, it is very important to not underestimate the power of sleep. Because things become easily blurry when we sit at home. We don't really know when the day starts, we cannot remember when the day ends, you know.

It is very, very hard to get a sense of normality if we are not rested well. Give your day structure, but also your nights. And then, of course, I think social media and the internet has been full of it.

It's the healthy diet. When we are struggling, it can be really hard to plan, cook, and eat a balanced diet. But food can really affect our mood. So it's important that we try to keep things as balanced as possible.

A routine can help us with this because it allows us to block out some time for cooking, eating, and cleaning up afterwards. Having the time doesn't mean that we will always have the energy and the headspace to cook, but it gives us the time to do so if we feel up to it.

The last one is exercise. Not all of us are a fan of exercising, but exercise can really boost our mood. Starting to exercise, one of the biggest barriers to doing so is time. But now actually we have enough of it.

By having a daily routine with daily exercise in mind, we can create time to take part in our exercise of choice. I have looked up some YouTube videos that I enjoy, you know, and I started to get moving, mostly with my toddler running around me.

And it's always a blast. Maybe you can do something similar. Overall, I want you to remember routine can be helpful when it comes to managing our mental health. It can help us to fit all the important things into our day.

And right now it's really important to find out what is important to us. The predictability of routine can offer some comfort in an otherwise very unpredictable time and world. So as I said, tomorrow I will be back with regular content.

The next episode is going to be about racism, and we will continue with our bonus episodes on Monday. Good luck everyone and have a great weekend.

I hope you enjoyed the episode so far. If you have any questions or suggestions, please don't hesitate to reach out. You can find me on social media, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram. The handle is always @saidintherapy.