Everything has sure changed since we’ve had to hunker down at home to slow the curve of the coronavirus and help the country’s health improve and recover. People with kids have had to come up with new ways to keep them occupied, and some have had to study up on subjects they haven’t thought about in years so they can help with schoolwork. Older people are facing their own challenges, learning new ways to cope while cooped up.
With so many retail and entertainment outlets closed for the time being, we’ve become reliant on the Internet for many things that we’d otherwise go out to buy and experience for ourselves. (And bless all those warehouse workers and delivery drivers who are keeping us going!)
Trying to make the best of it, you’ve tried every sheet pan dinner recipe you can find online, and you’ve convinced yourself that serving leftover garlic bread for breakfast is a good thing. You’ve made friends with the squirrels in your backyard and you’ve named all the lizards. You’ve cleaned out the garage and alphabetized your socks. And you’ve made a game out of seeing who in the family can use the least amount of toilet paper.
Still, physical isolation takes a toll, even if you’re Zooming with the office crew and if social distancing at your house means trying to find five minutes in one quiet place where the kids aren’t trying to murder each other. Deep breathing might help. Or yoga, if your dog or cat doesn’t stretch out on your mat as soon as you lay it down.
Here are some other things you can do to to help you keep calm and carry on:
Think About Others
One thing that helps is to think about others and how you can make this time easier for them. Reach out to family members and friends via FaceTime, phone, text, email, or even snail mail. It would be thoughtful to order a small treat to be sent to someone who may be in a residential facility, and especially nice if you send enough for him or her to share with staff. You can even send money to an inmate in your family to use at the commissary for snacks and personal supplies.
Play Music
The constant drumbeat of cable news isn’t a background that inspires serenity. Put on your favorite music and just listen to it for a while. If it moves you to dance, do it. Do it alone, with your spouse or your partner, with your kids, with your dog.
Clear The Clutter
Living every moment of your life at home tends to create clutter even if there was none to start with. Piles of stuff beget more piles of stuff, and after a while it becomes depressingly daunting to contemplate digging through them and putting everything away. If a thorough Spring cleaning is your idea of fun, go for it. But otherwise, just make sure you pick up before you go to bed at night so you can start each day fresh. Members of the family should be responsible for their own messes, of course, and good luck with that, but you’ll all feel better for it.
Set A Few Modest Goals
All that time you used to spend commuting, chauffeuring kids from soccer practice to trombone lessons, cruising garage sales, getting together with friends, or any of the other activities that took up hours a week can be put to learn new skills or brush up on old ones. There’s almost nothing you can’t find lessons about on the Internet. Set goals you can reach, and when you’ve reached them, take that sense of accomplishment and stretch a little more. Learn conversational Spanish or American Sign Language, learn how to crochet, practice making shadow animals, try your hand at puff pastry. You get the idea.
Visit Virtually
Take yourself or everyone in the house on a trip without leaving the living room. You can visit museums of all kinds and all over the world. You can go to aquariums, zoos, and botanical gardens. You can attend symphonic and operatic performances. You can go on a safari. You can even go on a roller coaster while you’re sitting on your couch.
Meanwhile, just know that we’re all in this together and that this, too, shall pass.
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