It’s no secret that moods are constantly fluctuating during this pandemic. I’m already an emotional person, but I have not had this severe emotional swings for a very long time. It’s hard to know how I’m going to feel from one day to the next, and sometimes one hour to the next.

Yesterday was one of the high days. I was super productive all morning, knocking out things that I have been meaning to do for weeks. The afternoon was mostly social. I had lunch with one of my coworkers who I hadn’t talked to 1:1 with since the work from home order. I had a different call with another coworker to talk about the drama on MTV’s The Challenge. Once my work day was over, my roommate and I grabbed fast food and watched Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining. All of things together made me feel like things were okay.

In contrast, today was definitely a low day. Everything is making me cry: talking to my family, reading articles on LinkedIn, even just a picture of a stranger’s dog. I’ve also had either a headache or migraine 5 of the last 7 days thanks to the change in weather here in Phoenix. Basically, it feels like everything is piling on top of me and I can’t get out.

I know for a fact that I’m not alone in this. This pandemic has been a roller-coaster so far, and it doesn’t feel like we’re hopping off any time soon. The best we can do for ourselves is to focus on the things within our control and try to ride out the rest.

This week, I’m challenging all of us to write out a list of 10 things that we can control or that we can do for ourselves.