Staying Calm During Coronavirus

Just as important as continuing to practice good hygiene and self-distance, is finding pockets of joy and calm in a time where such things may be sparse. The Aesthetic Authority reached out to members of our advisory board to see what they’re doing to pass the time at home, stay centered and busy during COVID-19.

The consensus? Stay active.

Melanie Palm, M.D.

I'm now working M-Thursday for the first time in my life. Every day after work, I have been working out - usually a big walk around the neighborhood (5 miles), watching lots of sunsets, and cooking... I hadn't used my oven in over 3 years, no joke. I'm logging lots of miles on my Peloton with biking, and a yoga class here and there. I went through my closet and donated a lot of clothing to charities. My two king charles cavalier spaniels are absolutely loving all the quality time with me at home. My friends and I are planning a virtual Mexican food/margarita happy hour over the Houseparty app as our local Mexican restaurant, Tony Jacal's, offers to go margies! This is a difficult time, but I have chosen to embrace it rather than fear it.

Catherine Maley

I'm doing a lot more learning of new skills and meditating so I don't lose it since I'm pretty high strung. For me, whenever I'm fearful or anxious about something, I take action, so I feel like I have some control. However, I have been introduced to the ‘Suits’ series on Amazon Prime that is trying to suck me in and doing a good job ;-) [sic].

Jason Pozner, M.D.

I am trying to stay busy. Day 6 in a row of peloton plus weights.

His advice for his colleagues:

• "Work out - it helps from getting depressed among the obvious benefits.
• Plan for when this is over - evaluate website, finances, marketing etc.
• Don’t knee jerk cancel marketing etc. this will be over hopefully soon.
• Patients will want our services when this is over. Don’t stress over it. [There’s] not much we can do about it.
• Deep breath. Stay busy
• [This is a] good time for academic projects and finishing things you have been working on."

Sheila Nazarian, M.D.

This has been one of the most grounding, humbling, and introspective times of my life. I have spent more time with my family and been deeply involved in my children's virtual learning which has shown me that no one is a better advocate and cares more about my children’s' success than me and my husband. I have spent more time supporting them, encouraging them, reading with them, and really showing them how much I care. I have also paid more attention to my home and virtual home and done housekeeping on both fronts. I have cleaned the garage (now it can actually fit two cars in it), organized the laundry room, tackled parts of my closet, unsubscribed from emails, organized the apps on my phone by category (travel, social media, shopping, finances), deleted phone gallery photos, all while keeping most of my staff busy with back office optimization, scheduling virtual consultations, keeping our online skincare store stocked and trying to fit in a little stretching and exercise as well. I also never really realized how virtually connected I really was. Posting stories about how I am feeling, and at-home beauty tricks has really brought on the love from my followers. This has been a time for me to re-prioritize, renew, pivot, and redirect. I am so, so grateful for it.

Joel Cohen, M.D.

I have taken some significant time with my family. My kids have literally resurrected some toys that I never thought they would look at again. My kids are 7, 12 and 16. So we are also doing things that we can all do as a family. Driveway hockey, driveway basketball, jump rope contests, watching movies like Cool Runnings, Remember the Titans and Miracle. Plus, we actually also watched the entire season of the new show High School Musical” The Series” — which I actually enjoyed and was glad to see that it was very progressive for 2020. I am trying to also clean off my “to do list” several academic projects, from updating or finishing book chapters, to final edits on several articles, to submitting copyright agreements.

Suneel Chilukuri, M.D.

I haven't been able to obviously go into the gym. Everything's been shut down for a little over a week. I had to change my workout habits and it really motivated myself to do things that are outside of my normal health realm. That's been fun. We have done a lot more family time in terms of bike rides, walking to the park, even watching movies together.

Randolph Waldman, M.D.

I try to keep my mind active and I try to keep my body active. I'm watching what I'm doing a little bit better with eating at home and not eating out a lot. I just stay away from all that when we go to the grocery. We order it online and pick it up. We're not even walking in grocery stores right now. It's forcing us to eat better and to maybe live a little healthier, try not to eat after eight o'clock at night. Then just try to keep my body exercising and active and then when my body's not active, my mind is.