I know what you’re going to say. The Internet is full of advice on what you should be doing with your life right now, to avoid going nuts during social distancing. The last thing you want to read now is another blog post from another “expert”.
How about, instead of being bored or going insane because of the things we can’t do, we think of everything we are able to do, and count ourselves lucky?
So far I haven’t experienced any signs and symptoms of boredom or craziness caused by #stayhome-ness. In fact, I have quite a few reasons to be grateful. Every day.
Firstly, I am lucky enough to still have a job and I am also able to work from home. That means that I am getting back three hours of my life everyday (the time that I used to spend commuting to and from work). So I’m basically getting younger as we speak… hehe.
Not to mention that I can use that extra-time to do stuff I don’t normally get to do. It also means that I had the excuse to set up a tiny home office (more like a “work-from-home corner”, really), which involved some of my favourite things to do: moving some furniture around (yes, again, woohoo!) and decorating a bookshelf. Yeah, OK, it’s not actually visible in my Zoom meetings, but I know it’s there. I see it. And the books are arranged by colour, so… yeah. Shout out to my #obsessivecolourcoordination.
What else?
Well, I get to walk the dog every morning instead of just the weekends. How awesome is that? Not only I am staying fit and making the dog happy, but I also have the chance to do some fabulous things like: look at the sky, take deep breaths and generally feel grateful to be alive and well.
There’s so much to do. We could talk about some of the house plants that need repotting, and about the weeding of the backyard which is practically a never-ending job since it rains every evening. Now would be a good time to study those online courses that I purchased when they were on special (I love a bargain!) and never got the chance, the mood or the energy to tackle them.
And the piece of resistance: I even got to bake a cake yesterday! From scratch. Mind-blowing, right? A recipe I haven’t made in ages. I even added orange peel and the smell coming from the oven took me way back to my previous life.
Last but not least, we finally have the time for all that creative stuff – you know, finish the unfinished projects, start new ones, learn more crafts, make something. Let’s not miss this chance to be creative. It is so good for the soul!
Social distancing can help us reconnect with ourselves. With that inner self we often don’t have time to listen to because we’re too caught up in the daily race against time.
Let’s make some lemonade and count our blessings.
