I talk with Dr. Ashley Sturgeon who is the President of the Lubbock County Medical Society about maintaining a good relationship with your significant other during the Coronavirus. She starts out by saying that, “she tries to remember in her relationship with her husband that he is her favorite person, so she needs to treat him like her favorite person. Sometimes when we get home, we’ve been nice to everyone else all day and we just relax and are ourselves. Sometimes ourselves are not very nice, so it’s really important to treat your family like they are the most important people to you in the world because they really are and sometimes when we relax around them it’s in ways that maybe aren’t the nicest.”
Because of the coronavirus, families are now spending a lot of time at home. Being around the same people for extended periods of time can heighten stress levels, causing your mental health to suffer.
Dr. Sturgeon says, “it’s really important to maintain your family relationships but first you need to maintain your own relationship with yourself. You can’t pour from an empty cup so you need to make sure that spiritually you are where you need to be, if you need to pray and meditate or do online church services, there is so much available right now, so make sure you’re where you need to be so you’re a reasonable partner to your partner and sort of curb that on edge feeling that we all have.”
Getting some sunshine and doing things together right now is key.
“I’ve been really worrying about the mental health of the public and our physicians as we go through this crisis. Get outside and walk around and do fun things like you normally do. It’s really important to get outside, with your sunscreen, and get a little sun.”
It doesn’t just have to be walking around outside…remember the things that brought you and your spouse together in the first place.
Sturgeon says, “I love doing yoga, my husband does not. So it’s something I can kind of con him into doing if I drag him kicking and screaming so I wouldn’t have much luck with that. But exercising together is something we do do very well, so going for a run together is something we used to do all of the time before we had a kiddo and so it’s something we can do again now. I’d encourage you to exercise together, pray together, do devotionals together, do things together, board games. There’s so much out there. We watched a concert by Stoney Larue the other night on Thursday on Facebook. He did a free concert so there’s so much out there that you can be doing right now with your family, other than snipping at each other because you’re stuck in the same house.”
Just remember to be kind and love one another. This too shall pass.
