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The pandemic causes many of us to have a primal fear – for our lives, for our well-being and health. What will happen tomorrow? Will we be left without work, without food and without a roof over our heads? But despite these frightening thoughts, many people think: can I do something? Can I somehow help if I’m not a doctor or an oligarch? After all, when we find a way to help others, we regain a sense of control, and accepting reality becomes a little easier.
1. Check how your neighbors are doing
If you know your neighbors, you probably know their phone numbers or social media profiles. You can write to them, ask if they are all right, if they need any help – especially if your neighbors are at risk. Or you can just talk through the door.
Help can be of any kind – what if your elderly neighbor wants to bake a pie, she ran out of sugar or flour, and you just had the right ingredients lying around in your closet? Just leave them at the neighbor’s door. And if you can go out or plan to go shopping for yourself, ask if you need to buy something for the neighbor’s grandfather – this way you will save him from having to leave the house. Or offer to place an online order for him, if he himself is not very friendly with modern technologies.
2. Eat smart
Many of us stocked our refrigerators to capacity a week or two ago. And then three. When there is a lot of food in the house, we calm down: the subconscious receives a signal that we are safe and we are not in danger of starvation. But as soon as gaps begin to form on the shelves of the refrigerator, anxiety begins to rise, and we rush to place a new order in the online grocery store or prepare a trip to the nearest supermarket. At this point, stop yourself.
You have already bought what you usually eat – just cook what you have. Try to calculate portions so that later nothing needs to be thrown away. Store products so that they can be used for as long as possible. Freeze anything that can be frozen without compromising the quality of those foods.
And don’t throw away leftovers if you’ve made too much for dinner—more often than not, we’re able to put cooked food in the fridge and eat it the next day for lunch. After all, no one has ever died from eating the same thing two days in a row, right? By the way, in this way you will help the environment.
3. Take care of those who care about you
Staying warm and safe at home, we can say thank you to many people: doctors, grocery store employees, couriers, those who ensure the normal life of the city and make sure that we are not left without water and electricity… The list is long.
What can you do but mentally thank all these people? Offer to install a “tip” jar for cashiers in a store near you. Put a box at your door with small token gifts for the couriers who bring orders to you, and hang a note for them with kind words. Did the local plumber save you from the flood? Order pizza delivery with a thank you note to your DEZ address.
Do you want to support doctors who are now working without rest and days off? First of all, just stay at home and do not go out unless absolutely necessary. And when placing your next online order, take advantage of the opportunities for charity that many companies now provide.
For example, when paying for purchases with a Mir card1 in Russian online stores and services, you will help doctors and all medical organizations: from each purchase made in any region of Russia, one ruble will be transferred to a charitable foundation , which collects applications from hospitals across the country and sends them the necessary equipment and equipment. The campaign will run from April 17 to July 20. The amount donated by the Mir payment system to support doctors can be tracked on a special page of the website since April 20th.
4. Take care of yourself
An example about an oxygen mask, which must be worn first on oneself, and only then on a neighbor, is stuck on everyone’s teeth, but has not ceased to be less relevant. Taking care of yourself is incredibly important right now. After all, only by supporting ourselves, we will be able to help others – both the closest, and distant and unfamiliar – those who help us every day, even without being familiar with us. Be kinder and more indulgent to yourself, and then you will have the strength and desire to help others.
1 The operator of the national payment system “Mir” is the Joint-Stock Company “National System of Payment Cards” (NSPK), established on July 23, 2014. 100% shares of NSPK JSC are owned by the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.