If you find yourself going stir-crazy indoors, it’s totally normal! A lot of people are experiencing a rollercoaster of emotions in this unprecedented time filled with uncertainty.
It’s important to think with a clear head and logically. Though we’ve drastically had to alter our lifestyles and adjust to the loss of some privileges we’ve had our entire lives, we’ve also been given the gift of a resource that cannot be purchased or recovered — time.
It’s up to us to make the best of a bad situation, now is the time to capitalize on this period of time by getting around to everything that you’ve pushed onto the sidelines and would’ve gotten around to eventually if you’d had the time. Guess what? No more excuses — now you have nothing but time.
In lieu of protesting quarantine and risking the health of yourself and your community, consider using your imagination and getting creative.
Learn A Language
You had to reschedule your tour across France this summer. So what? You don’t need to travel all the way to Europe to experience the culture. Consider taking up a new language that you’ve always wanted to learn so that when you do visit that foreign country you had planned on going to, you don’t appear to be a clueless tourist. There are plenty of free resources online, as well as the app Duolingo, that can help you to navigate a foreign language.
Learn An Instrument
It’s the universe’s way of mocking me by making me a child that was so interested in music and instruments while also having the attention span of squirrel and patience of, well, a child. If you have an instrument in your house collecting dust and ridiculing you from the corner of your room, pick it up and start your journey toward becoming the next Billy Joel.
Learn To Cook
Between running back and forth to work all day and trying to maintain some semblance of a social life, who has the time to cook? You do now. Nobody’s asking for you to audition for Chopped, but it might be in the best interest of your health (both mental and physical) and your finances that you learn to cook. Simply take the time to curate your skills in the kitchen and pick out some recipes for your favorite foods online. The more you practice in quarantine, the easier and quicker it’ll be for you to make it.
Clean
Listen, I don’t want to tell you how to live your life, but if you’re going to be shacking up indefinitely, it might be best for you to make your living space an open and relaxing place to be. Not to mention that the mere thought of a germ living on any surface at this point in history is quite literally terrifying. Make your bed, do your laundry, fold your clothes, break out the Lysol, take out the trash, scrub the countertops, wax the floors. I feel like this also doubles as a workout, so why not kill two birds with one stone?
Learn To Sew
I’m definitely guilty of passing on my clothes that have sustained rips to my mother or neighborhood dry cleaner. You don’t have to be a high-level seamstress churning out a new fashion line in order to reap the benefits of sewing basics. Start small by fixing the buttons on some clothes, do some patchwork and gradually work your way up to sewing fabric together.
Start Exercising
No, seriously — Gyms are closed, but you can still get in a great workout from home. Many businesses like Fitness Blender, Peloton, CorePower Yoga, etc. offer free workout plans to choose from. Otherwise you can get creative on your own and develop your own fitness plan to achieve your fitness goals.
Binge Entertainment
There’s so much media out there to consume you. Aside from social media, there are albums to be heard, movies to be seen, shows to be binged, and books to be read. You KNOW you have at least one of each that you’ve been meaning to get to for months. You have now been gifted the blessing of time to catch up on everything on your list.
Hang Out With Friends
Just keep your distance, people. Zoom calls exist, FaceTime exists, phonecalls exist, texting exists. We have so much to work with in the digital age that we don’t even recognize how fortunate we are to be living through a pandemic in a time where we have so many resources. It’s probably not great to make a habit of it, but you can see friends and still hang out with them from a distance, whether that’s on a bike ride, by your car in a parking lot, or walking through a park. Make sure it’s an open space with space between you.
Games
Engage your inner child — break out the board games, break out the video games, and party like it’s 2003. We’ve forgotten that games are truly enjoyable and can spark a sense of competition. Dig up Monopoly, The Sims, Mario Party, and the ol’ sibling rivalry that’ll keep you occupied for days, if not weeks.
Play With Your Hair
You are in lockdown. If there was ever a time to play with your hairstyle or hair color, now would be the time. If it comes out bad, only a select number of people will see it. If it comes out good, then you have a new look to introduce to the world post-quarantine. There has never been a better time to experiment.
This is a friendly reminder that it’s not illegal to be outside; just don’t go outside and congregate with people who you aren’t quarantining with. If you are going to see people, keep your distance. Nobody is trying to take freedom away — there is simply a global concern for health that takes priority over anything else.