4 Things to Keep You Sane in Quarantine
“You can spend minutes, hours, days, weeks, or even months over-analyzing a situation; trying to put the pieces together, justifying what could’ve, would’ve happened... or you can just leave the pieces on the floor and move the fuck on.”
— Tupac Shakur
Do you ever feel like it’s two steps forward and one step back at times? You go through enormous personal growth to fall back into old patterns and habits that don’t make you shine? Do you find yourself reaching for the wrong decision while also reminding yourself that is exactly what it is but you do it anyway? Moments like these, especially in pandemic times, constantly remind me that life doesn’t reside on a timeline, but in a spiral instead. If you think about it, a timeline is linear which means we should be constantly learning and growing and have consistent growth throughout our lives. But that’s just not the case. Instead, we grow a little and it’s uncomfortable, so we go back to what is comfortable while still having the tools we learned. so we ebb forward and flow back a few times until something shoves us further forward. We have similar experiences but, hopefully, we learn a little something along the way and shift ever so slightly towards growth, expansion, possibility and opportunity.
The new normal of this COVID Pandemic life has brought me to face this spiral again. Tias Little recently said that this time of social distancing may have a tendency to lean us towards previous patterns and regress into our past self. We must be vigilant and kind to ourselves and others through this process.
I know a lot of us are stuck in patterns of anxiety or depression out of fear of what’s to come and we have every right to feel that way. But often times, over-analyzing makes the problem bigger than any solution and if you’re anything like me, becomes paralyzing. It’s times like these in which our mindfulness practice is put to the test. If we recognize what we can control, take inventory of our deeply personal needs and desires, become educated about what’s happening around us without diving into a tailspin about our lack of ability to fix it all, we might come out of this thing better than we went in.
At home with little interaction outside of Zoom classes, social media posts and animal cuddles, I’ve recognized how I’ve ebbed and flowed in and out of laziness and productivity, discipline and anarchy, moments of fear and an overwhelming sense of calm. it’s all okay. Sometimes eating pie over the kitchen sink makes for mason jar salads at lunchtime later. Finding balance in this situation is harder than any other. But if we recognize when we go in one direction over another we can begin to slow the pace of the mind, and not beat ourselves up over that which we cannot control.
As I’ve watched myself lean deeper into self-reliance and acceptance mode, I’ve recognized four things that have helped me through each day. Instead of judging the “bad” and patting myself on the back for the “good” I’ve just let them all simply co-exist together, just like on my spiral. Observing what comes, taking it moment by moment, and recognizing that my feelings are valid, and it’s all going to be ok. There’s a saying and it goes something like, “in the end it’s all going to be ok. If it’s not ok, then it’s not the end.”
So let’s stop treating this moment like end of days. Let’s celebrate our accomplishments and not dwell in our destructive habits. Hopefully the below list will help you recognize how to navigate each day with a little less judgment on yourself and a little more ease to relax into it.
DAILY QUARANTINE LIST FOR SANITY
Accomplish one thing each day even if it’s as simple as walking the dog or loading the dishwasher. If it’s creating an online course or painting the bedroom, kudos, but points go to ANY accomplishment no matter how big or small.
Allow yourself to fall apart if you need to. Maybe it’s a good cry, a long Facebook scroll or zone out I front of the TV. Maybe you need to connect with your therapist over the phone or video chat. Maybe it’s guzzling a bottle of wine on a Happy Hour call with friends. Whatever it is, allow it to happen and get rid of the judgment that you have to hold it together all the time.
Make time for self-care, whether it’s a yoga practice, painting your toe nails, or diving into a good book. Taking the time out of your day invites you to dive inward and, for a moment, not be stuck in quarantine.
Find gratitude in your day. If you’re on the front lines and still working, feel the gratitude of the rest of the world cheering you on for the difference you are making by saving lives, delivering packages, keeping shelves stocked, floors clean and enabling the rest of us to be safely tucked away at home. If you are stuck at home working or not, find a reason it’s all ok: If you still have a job and are working from home, there is your reason to give thanks. You still have an income, and while not always ideal, you are able to help push the economy forward by getting up and sitting at a desk all day. If you don’t have work due to business closures and layoffs, see if you can find gratitude in the little things that you always felt like you missed out on when you were off at work all week long. You now have a more time at home for projects, family or sleep so binge watch en entire season of your favorite show, eat ice cream out of the carton in your sweatpants or tackle cleaning the garage and alphabetizing your spice rack. Anything you do with your day you have the opportunity to pause, give thanks for this moment, and carry on.