We are sheltering in place. And were about losing our minds, losing our center, when I came up with a tool to get us back into balance. We refer to it in our household as "pie." As in, "how are you doing with your pie?" or "Got a full pie yet?"
I repurposed the game pieces from Trivial Pursuit, one for each family member. The little triangles each got marked with a different letter:
S - social
O - occupational
S - spiritual
P - physical
I - intellectual
E - emotional
The idea is that we strive to do something for each letter every day. And we check in about it at dinner. Everyone's game-piece sits waiting at their place at the table. Our twelve year old loves to orchestrate the conversation, which is good, because it was designed to ensure he wasn't all about the video games while we're in home-school mode.
Here are examples of what each could be:
S - social: conversations with anyone outside our home via phone or zoom, sending postcards or care-packages.
O - occupational: either paying jobs or family jobs around the house, also known as chores.
S - spiritual: family chapel, meditation, spiritual journaling, reading Teenage Soup for the Soul, listening to a spiritual podcast.
P - physical: biking, walking around the neighborhood, jumprope, weights.
I - intellectual: reading, puzzles, trivia cards (that are now untethered from the game and used randomly), documentary.
E - emotional: arts and crafts, journalling, talking about feelings with a loved one, blanket fort time.
The interpretation of each person's pie pieces is up to them (within reason.) The magic is in the intentionality and the conversation. I highly recommend this exercise!