Wellness Workspaces & Ergo Flow Video

With a week of homeschooling under our belts, it has definitely turned everyone’s worlds upside down! We spent the weekend actively thinking about how to improve our workspace conditions with an eye towards wellness, focusing on how we sit, where we sit, how we use our eyes and bodies.

A Flexible Seat with a View:

We moved furniture around to ensure the children were able to quickly look up from their screens and look outside into the distance. Studies have shown that looking off into the distance and playing outside helps decrease the risk of near-sightedness. Children and workers alike should be taking their eyes off their screen every 20 minutes or so and looking off into the distance. Spring is here, so looking outside and watching the hummingbirds is soothing as well. The children also decided to create flexible seating arrangements and work on certain subjects at the kitchen table, others at their bedroom desk, and relaxed reading sessions on a comfortable sofa or beanbag.

Blue Light Glasses:

We bought the children and our parents blue light glasses for Christmas for evening screen time, which proves even more vital now. We were built to live by the movement of the sun and seasons. Screens and other lighting artificially extend our days and decrease our ability to produce melatonin. Melatonin is the hormone that helps us sleep and keep us healthy. We all, especially children, need our sleep to grow, function and decrease stress. We aim for homework and screen time to be completed no later than 2:30, but if there is a need for homework in the evening, we use our glasses.

Physical Education:

Fortunately the teachers have already suggested incorporating P.E. into the daily routine. For my children, if we don’t set a time for P.E., it might not happen during the “school hours”. Every day at 11:00 a.m. we start a family P.E. class. So far, we have done bodyweight conditioning exercises, taken walks and bike rides, and used the Peloton on rainy days. We have ping-pong tournaments, practice yoga and even pulled out my reebok aerobic slide circa 1995. This weekend, Annika, Xander and I choreographed an ergonomically friendly yoga class, called “Ergo-Flow” to counteract the hunching shoulders and slouchy backs that are inherent in virtual learning. It’s a short and sweet class from my yogis to yours! While it is an amateur video and we know there are many expert yoga teachers you can follow on social media, we thought it might be fun to practice with a few familiar faces! Might be fun to have some live sessions with friends too. Until then, hopefully you and your yogis can incorporate this quick 15-minute yoga flow into your daily grind.

Our Physical Education Commitment:

It’s important for all of us, of all ages, to keep up with our physical and mental health. It’s probably easier for us because kids are older and can get their work done without either of us being present. But even parents with younger kids are finding ways. My sister Seema, who has really young children, created a workout space for her family. She does weights, her husband on the treadmill, and they play fun music and the kids dance and mimic the parents in the background! My parents are going for walks in their garden. We also hold family facetime Senior Yoga sessions, incorporating chairs for their ease and safety. This gives them some connection with all of us while they try new postures and movements.

Jay and I have also found our groove. I have been riding the Peloton before the kids wake up and Jay practices yoga. Then I make breakfast and they start their day. That’s when I start my strength training while listening to a podcast. My leg days, become their leg days, my upper body days become theirs, and we have a plank challenge every day. I use weights during my workouts and create body weight workouts for all of us during their P.E. hour - so I get a double workout!

This weekend, my favorite local yoga teacher Ashlee Goite held a live yoga class on zoom, which was lovely. She had friends and students from across the globe attending and really lent to a feeling of the world being together on this. And sprinkled into the week, Jay and I practiced on demand with YogaWorks and Peloton. It’s harder for me to do a long yoga session because it seems like I am cooking a meal or a snack and cleaning up every hour on the hour! But I hope to find a purposeful way to incorporate my practice. My other goal is to work towards at least 5 minutes of meditation a day…I am going to need it once Jay starts working with confirmed Covid patients.

Hope all of you are finding a way to stay well and be well at home during all this! I imagine this situation however, is making it a bit easier to finally be more present!