So a lot of people are kind of freaking out because of having to stay home for an unspecified amount of time. I have, like, a PhD in the art of not going anywhere. It’s going to be okay. Really, it is. Having it mandatory for you to stay home is giving you the opportunity to live life like me (which a bunch of you said you were jealous of). You’ve been given the gift of time. This is an opportunity to do all of the things that you always said you wanted to do, but said you couldn’t because you didn’t have time.
Here’s a list of some things that you can do without leaving your house:
1. Contact Loved Ones - Text, email, write letters, Marco Polo, Snapchat, WhatsApp, use your preferred method of technology to stay in contact with friends and family.
2. Journal - Find some way to document the gratitude you have for the things in your life. Try listing a list of the things you’re grateful for in a journal or an app like Presently. Be creative like the woman in this article who quilted her journal. Be sure to include the things that you previously might have taken for granted that you’re missing now that you’re required to participate in social distancing. Be grateful for the internet that gives you access to the ones you love despite the distance between you, access to information, and access to entertainment. Photograph the things that make you happy. Hey, bonus, you can even share these things online to help others who may be struggling to remember why they have reasons to be happy.
3. Learn New Skills - Time can be a gift if you use it. What’s something you find interesting that you just couldn’t find the time to learn about before? Sewing? Crochet? Writing? Psychology? Politics? Managing your finances? Planning for retirement? The internet is a vast place where lots of information and knowledge lives, and we can use it to educate ourselves without ever leaving the house.
4. Read - Mason Cooley said, "Reading gives us someplace to go when we have to stay where we are." Apps like Libby and Overdrive are free and let you check out books, audiobooks, and even movies without ever leaving the comfort of your couch. If you don’t have a current library card, call the library or your city to see if they can help you out. You can get a lot of the classics online for free on kindle. If money isn’t the issue, you can buy ebooks online or get an audible subscription. You can read all those books you didn’t have time to read before. You could participate in a reading challenge to read 50 books in 50 weeks. You could have an online book club. You could create your own reading challenge and ask your social media friends to participate.
5. Meditate - Learn how to be calm on purpose. This is a life skill that many of us lack because our lives are so busy and hectic that we never make time to be still. Learn how to be calm, and try to teach yourself how to maintain that calm even when you have stress around you. There are all sorts of studies of the benefits of meditation on health and well-being. Studies show that there are mental, emotional, and physical benefits to meditation. Here’s a Youtube Ted Talk about how meditation can literally change your brain and improve your ability to deal with stress.
6. Music - Learn to play an instrument. Practice an instrument you might already play. Learn to sing. Listen to your favorite music. Share your favorite music with your friends and family.
7. Exercise - I know it’s not ideal that you don’t get to go to the gym, or studio, or whatever your preferred method of working out is. However, there are a lot of options that you can do from home. Things like yoga, thai chi, or calisthenics only require your body to work out. Again, there are tons of free and paid options online to help you reach your fitness goals, whatever they may be. Here’s a link to an excellent free yoga channel on Youtube called Yoga with Adriene. Even spending time outdoors is still an option for some people, which would include walks and hikes.
8. Cook - If you’re stuck at home with your family, now might be an opportune time to explore cooking in different ways. Cook together. Eat meals together. If you have kids, teach them to cook with you instead of cooking for them. Explore recipes online or think about different types of cuisine you might like to eat. I’ve really enjoyed experimenting with Korean dishes and Vegan recipes lately. Maybe now is the time to try out a more plant-based diet.
9. Make Things - Craft. Make things. It doesn’t matter if you’re crappy at it. Everyone’s a beginner at first. Remember how to have fun like when you were a kid. Make Jewelry or wire sculptures. Make things from clay. There are a bunch of recipes online about how to make homemade slime or clay. Paint canvases or mandalas on rocks. Modge podge old cans or book covers.
10. Study History - Study history. Learn about mistakes that people have made in the past, and things that people did right. Understand the principles that your country was founded upon. Understand the rights and responsibilities we have to be responsible citizens and maintain freedoms. With the election coming up, this would be an excellent way to be more informed.
11. Study Religion - Study ancient philosophers like Plato and Aristotle. Study Buddishm. Study the Bible. Learn about morality. What does it mean to believe that some things are right and wrong, to believe in goodness and sin? Learn about concepts of God. Study the Book of Mormon. Study the Bhagavad Gita. Study these things to understand people who are different from you, and study them to find the merits in what others believe. Study to understand belief systems so that you can cultivate compassion, empathy, and tolerance for other people and ideas.
12. Write - Write stories. Write essays. Write a play and perform it with your family. Write a book and illustrate it. Write in your journal to understand yourself and gain insight about the ways you react and think. Study the art of writing. I can’t count the number of people who I’ve met who say they always wanted to write a book but could never find the time. Write the book that you wish you could read. Start a blog about something that you love. You’ve never had a more captive audience.
13. Draw - Practice drawing. Draw eyes. Draw hands. Draw still lifes. Draw portraits. Try to draw a portrait of one of your favorite people from a photograph. Study how to draw online. Draw abstract patterns. Doodle. Draw buildings. Draw the view from your window. Draw comics. Draw graphic novels. Mail a drawing you’ve made to someone you love or take a picture of your art and share it in a text or online.
14. Color - Adult coloring books are a popular way to unwind. Order a coloring book or print color pages from online. If you can’t do that, draw something to color.
15. Manicures and Pedicures - With all this emphasis on hygiene and washing our hands, why not make it fun. Soak your nails. Rub oil on your cuticles. Trim and file your nails. Buff them. Paint them. Paint your nails with ridiculously intricate artistic designs that you never would have done in real life because of the time requirement, and post your artwork online.
16. Clean - You know how certain parts of your house never seem to get clean? You’re too busy to finish all of the dishes, or there’s that weird pile of stuff that grows that you never seem to find time to sort through? Clean the kitchen and do all of the dishes. Wipe the counters. Clean the floors. I promise a cleaner house will make you feel better. Sort through your junk drawer. Organize your closets. Get rid of things you don’t need that are only cluttering up your home and life. Simplify.
17. Garden - All you need to garden is a window. It’s a bonus if you have outdoor space. I once grew a mini windowsill garden from seeds and had fresh tomatoes and peppers in the winter. Not only does gardening give you something to do every day as you cultivate your plant, you get to watch it grow, and if you care for it well you get something fresh and yummy to eat out of it. Learn about hydroponics or vertical gardening.
18. Sit by a Fire - If you have outdoor space, you could sit out by a fire. There’s something mesmerizing about campfires or firepits. If you don’t have outdoor space, you could light a candle. It might not be quite as exciting, but you can still toast a marshmallow on a fork and watch the flames.
19. Be Present - Learn the skill of being still. Pause and notice what’s around you. Notice the warmth of the sunshine streaming through the window on your arm. Listen to the sound of birds singing outside. Notice what you can see from your window. Feel the chair beneath you. Learn how to distinguish the present from the past and the future. Potential problems aren’t real yet. If you can change or influence the things you’re worried about, then plan and act. If you can’t control them, just let it go. Your emotional energy is precious and so is your peace. When you have done all you can do to influence things in the most positive way, relax. It is out of your hands and you’ve done your best. If you haven’t done your best, work harder.
20. Entertainment - Sometimes when your life is really stressful, there’s not much to do besides working on staying sane. If you’re overwhelmed and feeling panicky because you think you must be doing something, take a deep breath and waste some time. Learn how to relax. Take a bubble bath. Binge watch some shows. Play some video games. Try out some new apps.
21. Learn the Art of Massage - Life is stressful, and sometimes it's more stressful than usual. It's important to learn how to maintain our bodies and manage our pain, regardless of what life throws at us. Practice on someone in your household. If you live alone, it's even more important to know how to ease the tension in your body. Learn how to use household objects for massage. Use tennis balls. Learn how to ease tension headaches. Try out different methods of massage like scraping and trigger point therapy.
22. Paint A Room - Haul out the paints or pick some up on your grocery run and update the color of your walls. It takes a long time and you’ll have accomplished something when you’re done.
23. Grow Things - Cultivate flowers, plants, or succulents. Grab a succulent or an orchid at walmart during your grocery run and learn how to care for it.
24. Collect Inspiration - Go on Pinterest and collect inspiring quotes that make you happy or hopeful. Write them in a book or pin them. Collect beautiful images. Share the things that inspire you and make you happy with other people online.
25. Daydream - Daydream about the things that you would do if you weren’t quarantined, and plan to do them someday. Pin pictures of the destinations you want to see and the places you want to visit. Daydream about the way you wish your life was. Daydream about how you wish the world was.
26. Plan - Plan for the future. Plan the party you’ll have when social distancing is over. Plan for your life. If you weren’t on mandatory house arrest, what would you be doing? Are you pursuing your hopes and dreams? If not, why not? Transforms your daydreams into goals by devising steps that will move you in the direction of your goals. Think about what you’re passionate about. How do you wish the world was different or better? Follow Gandhi's advice and be the change you wish to see in the world. Implement changes in your own life that reflect the changes that you wish everyone would adopt. For example, if you’re passionate about health and fitness and fighting rising rates of obesity, exercise and maybe share your journey and passion with others online. If you’re passionate about plant-based eating, share or make up recipes that you love. If you’re worried about the national debt and government spending, be responsible with your own finances and try to teach others how to be responsible too. Although you might be restricted in what you can do now, what do you want to do when you have the freedom to do things again? Be solution oriented instead of problem oriented.
27. Become More Cultured - Tour museums virtually that you might otherwise never get to visit like The Louvre or The National Gallery of Art. Attend an opera every day for the duration of the Met’s closure.
28. Keep Learning (for Kids) - Companies like Scholastic are encouraging kids to keep learning while schools are canceled by offering free daily K-6+ projects to “keep kids reading, thinking, and growing.” There’s also a list of education companies offering free subscriptions due to school closures here.
29. Study a Language - If you’re going to be hanging out on your phone to pass the time, why not use it learning a useful skill? Apps like Duolingo offer free courses in tons of languages. If you progress enough so that you’re not challenged anymore by the app, the website has stories in a few languages that get progressively harder. While you read you answer questions to challenge your comprehension. You can start reading books or articles in the language you’re learning. A free and easy way to do this using articles or books on the website for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You can choose the language you want to view the website in. Another bonus is that much of the content has audio, so if you do a split screen view, you can play the audio and brush up on your listening skills while you improve your comprehension.
30. Origami - Origami is, like, a life skill. Every boring thing you ever attend will have a program, and if you have paper, you have entertainment. Also, if kids are bored, you can make them an instant toy. You can have fun doing origami with more than just paper. You can do it with dollar bills or napkins too.
31. Do Makeup - Always thought it was crazy how people could completely transform themselves using makeup? Always wished you could try it but never had the time? Now, you’ve eliminated the humiliation of having to leave the house if your makeup turns out horribly. If it turns out well, you can always share it online. Try facepainting. Try stage makeup. Use some household products like breadcrumbs and corn syrup with red food coloring to turn yourself into a zombie, or make it look like you have disgusting wounds. After all of your makeup attempts you should have a model shoot.
32. Hairtainment - Entertain yourself by trying new hairstyles. No matter your length of hair, there are tutorials online teaching you things that you can do with it. You can try updos or braids. You can try curling it with socks. You can try cutting, dyeing, or highlighting your own hair. You can pin your hair up and make it look like you have bangs.
33. Beautify Your Living Space - Hang decorations or paintings. Make centerpieces. Be creative. Work outside in your yard. Landscape. Surround yourself with things in your home that make you happy.
There are so many things you can do that are entertaining and productive, even when you’re stuck at home. If you’re really anxious about being quarantined, it’s time for a little introspection. You need to ask yourself why. Why are you feeling anxiety about having to stay home?
It can’t be FOMO. The whole world is in the same boat right now.
Are you afraid of slowing down? Are you afraid of being alone with your own thoughts? If you are, you probably need to slow down even more. There’s a zen proverb that says “If you don’t have time to meditate for an hour, then you should meditate for two hours.” Are you running away from something? Are you staying busy so that you don’t have to think about something, and if so what?
Are you worried about finances? There’s a reason that experts recommend having an emergency fund, and it’s precisely for times like these. You could utilize this time to learn the basics about managing your finances, career paths that are in demand, and responsible things to do with your money once you’ve saved an excess beyond an emergency fund. You could study how to invest in different ways so that the money you do have is productive for you.
Does being home make you sad? If being home makes you sad, you should find ways to improve it so that it makes you happy. Cleaning your environment can help. Decluttering your environment can help. Surrounding yourself with decorations and things that are beautiful can help. C.S. Lewis said that “The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career.” Have we made where we live a home? Do we work to support our families, the lifestyle we want, and to contribute to our communities? Or is work our life? Is socializing our life? Is that what we really want? If you feel alone, maybe assess your priorities and see if the places you’re spending most of your time are getting you closer to your goals based on your priorities and values.
This can be a gift if we use it. This is the opportunity of time. Do all of the things you said you wished you would do if you only had the time. Be still. Breathe. Do the things you said you wanted to do someday. Make today your someday.
No comments:
Post a Comment