Dealing With Yourself, By Yourself.
While we’re all safer at home, let’s work towards a “quarantine glow-up.”
When it comes to being a part of a stressful part of history, no one is blaming anyone for solely focusing on your well-being; but for those who are looking for a sense of normalcy in their new indoor routines, you might be stuck in some kind of unproductive rut. Whether you’ve been involved in online schooling, at home after being furloughed, or just plain bored, life now has taken a weird turn. We are (for the sake of others) stuck inside, with any worry or anxiety stemming from how life will be after we can go back to our outside ventures. Unfortunately, I’m unable to say that life as we knew it is going to magically reappear and have to catch back up with our usual routines once this is all over. But let’s take a breath and focus on the present. While we wait to go back outside, let’s focus on what we can change, and work on small things so that our transition back to reality won’t be as bad. Here are some things that can occupy your time while you’re waiting for the all-clear.
Mental/Emotional Wellness
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Mental and emotional wellness are probably the “easiest” in terms of not requiring movement; figuring out how to identify with and process your emotions during this period of solitude can help you pinpoint some negative areas in your life. This is a great time to find a journal or notepad where you can vent about the things that you keep bottled up. Other expressive outlets like writing poetry or writing down your regrets/obstacles and shredding the paper afterwards are other surefire ways to work on emotive processing of any kind. In addition to this, many mental health professionals are offering supportive services that can be accessed online, so consulting your health insurance provider right now could be a solid step towards mental decluttering. Need help but can’t afford it? Although it’s not the perfect substitute for an actual person, therapy-focused podcasts, books, and wellness articles are also a move in the right direction.
Physical Wellness
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If you’re looking for more active changes, now could be an ideal time to work on a workout! This can be adjusted for any energy-level; whether you want to make sure you’re at least moving once a day with a yoga or stretch routine every morning, or you want to make solid progress toward those #BodyGoals with bodyweight or cardio routine, becoming physically active is something that DOES NOT have to take place in a gym, especially if you’re a little self-conscious right about now. Physical wellness is important, whether you’re inclined to it or not, so finding a way to move that you enjoy is essential in a time where you might be prone to sit or lay down all day. It’s also important to do the opposite if you’ve been running around the house trying not to get bored, or if you’ve been staying up until you’ve lost track of what day it is; get some REST! It is good for both physical and mental maintenance, and you don’t want to strain your body and mind by not recharging.
For the fitness-focused, it’s also helpful to remember that ‘abs are made in the kitchen,’ so researching a diet or lifestyle that works for you is also fair game. Abs aren’t the only thing that the kitchen can help with, though! Even though some food items are hard to find in the store, now could be a good time to start working on eating habits and overall kitchen skills; most often, it is the healthy and not-instantaneous food choices that stay stocked on shelves, so maybe a pantry assessment or eating habit check could be useful right before you make your weekly trip to the grocery store. Why not use this time as an opportunity to try a new recipe that you previously didn’t have time for? Or, if stocking up on groceries is a challenge for you, learning how to meal plan weekly with nutritious food is a win-win to ensure healthy eating and ideal budgeting.
Spiritual Wellness
If you are religious and/or spiritual, getting in tune with your higher power or innermost self is key to a well-balanced life. Meditation and prayer are both ways to center yourself, so finding a mantra or devotional that speaks to you can be an option to become more centered. If you are religious and believe that you are called to fast around this time, there are many different guides for traditional fasts that are done yearly, as well as simple guides on how to fast for beginners. On the other hand, if you’re new to being religious or spiritual, now’s a good time to research and find what belief system is the best for you. Not only can you do this simply by Googling different faiths and practices, but now’s a good time to take a look at a holy book or important text that might be able to clarify any confusion that you’ve had about a certain walk of life. Are you not religious or spiritual, but you feel disconnected from your goals in general? Take this time to do a little bit of soul-searching; carve out some time in your day to seriously sit down and write out your goals for tomorrow, next semester, or as far in the future as you want. Use those manifestation techniques to plan out how you want your life to go, and keep the writing somewhere close to referring back to when you get lost. Meditation could also aid in this, but instead of mantras, practice mindfulness; set a few minutes aside to quietly think about simple things like how you’re making valuable contributions to your goals, or how you could go about self-improvement in general; there’s nothing wrong with a self-check-in.
Social Wellness
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Do you have boundaries that need to be set or re-established? Are you dealing with toxicity in your social life? If it took any type of sign for you to focus on relationships with others, being separated from most of your friends and loved ones at home could not have come at a better time. Although it might not be as good as confronting someone face to face, a video call or serious texting session might be a great opportunity to communicate how you’ve been feeling with others, especially if some negative feelings or situations need to be dealt with. If you want to start with those closest to you and you aren’t the only person in your house, take this time to work on any nuclear family communication that you may or may not be missing right about now. Regardless of who it is, genuine and honest communication with others is already difficult in person, but working on it now when everyone might want company more than ever is a great step towards forming deeper bonds, repairing old ones, or realizing that some may need to be left alone.
On a more positive note, maybe a virtual date session with your boo or a “digital movie night” with an old friend could be a way to increase the bond between those relationships that you want to deepen. You may be feeling some type of way because someone may not have talked to you in a while, but keep in mind that this is a learning curve for everyone and that everyone is facing their own unique set of circumstances. Try to become the warmth for someone else by checking in on them every once in a while. Make sure to also check in periodically on anyone you know who has been going through mental, financial, or other issues as a result of current events. Even though social distancing doesn’t mean permanent separation from the people in your life, it’s important to remind those who are struggling right now that they are not alone, even if they’re alone in their household.
Intellectual Wellness
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Although the spring semester was disrupted suddenly, this is a great time to finish strong while you still can. And, if you’re preparing for summer classes, you might need to regain your sense of focus before the semester starts. Making steps like getting school materials organized or arranging a study space somewhere in your home is a great idea. Maybe you can even look up a few study tips to help you focus to beat the “quarantine fog” that’s getting the best of some of us. Or maybe you’re prepared, but you know that there are some basics that you could always work on to make classes easier. With an influx of online materials being handy, now’s the time to work on a language, practice an instrument, or sharpen some old Math or English skills.
Are you not in school but are still looking to be intellectually stimulated? Maybe you’ve always wanted to know how exactly an engine runs, or how to choose a good political candidate to vote for. Or maybe you suck at doing eyeshadow cut creases, are scared for a potential virtual presentation, or don’t know what a “stock” is. My point here is that the scope of new things to learn is quite endless. I’m not knocking all of the time that you spend watching television or scrolling Twitter at all; if that is what is keeping you comfortable and calm, then by all means go for it. However, if you’re always itching for something to do, it’s a really good time to write a list of all of the things that you’re interested in and pursue them. This is probably some of the longest time that you’ll have to yourself, and discovering things that you love to learn about is another great way to discover who you are as well. Whatever your niche may be, there’s always an opportunity to put some of the screen time you’re getting into learning something new.
In the end, we all know that being inside for a long time is taxing on the mind and body; it isn’t going to be easy, and things may be a little worrisome for everyone right about now. But, I encourage you to change your perspective; it’s always disquieting to focus on the things that we unfortunately cannot change. However, if we dare to try and adjust some of the things that we have the power to change, we might be surprised to see that we come out of this better than we initially thought.
