Have you been frustrated and going crazy trying to find ways to stay connected and not be bored while you are under quarantine.
It is very natural to get frustrated at first and even fearful when they first announced each household should honor the quarantine and stay at home as much as possible especially if you are someone who has a very full social calendar.
I felt the same way the first week and struggled with wondering how long this virus is going to take over our lives, and what will the long term effects be to our society and our economy as a whole.
One of the things that really helped me turn the corner is I increased my meditation and prayer time each morning and it allowed me to deal with my emotions in a healthy way and gave me a feeling of peace and gratitude.
It does not matter if you are a spiritual person or not what really matters is that you are able to quiet yourself, focus on your breathing, relax and just let the thoughts come and go. By practicing regularly you learn to observe your thoughts and choose which ones to allow and which ones to delete. Which ones that serve you and which ones cause you harm.
Meditation is just one way that can help you through this crisis but there are other ways you can use the extra time.
Five ways to stay connected while under quarantine
- Attend an online group exercise class. Most coaches are offering their classes online and this is a great way to stay in shape and keep connected to your classmates. Zoom is a great way to meet online.
- Take an online class. Yale is offering a class called The Science of WellBeing I signed up for this course myself to learn more about the science of what makes people happy.
- Reach out to your neighbors and see how you can support the senior citizens in your neighborhood and make a schedule so that everyone shares the burden of shopping, errands, and meals.
- Connect with an old friend and have a virtual coffee meeting and catch up with one another.
- Have a family meeting and work together to pick a local organization that is offering services to first responders or healthcare workers and find out what they need most and gather the community to provide the materials they need. You can do this by creating a Facebook Group, Instagram or Nextdoor group to assemble people virtually.
Be open to all the opportunities that we have to help one another stay healthy and happy.
Please leave a comment if you used some of the suggestions above and share some you and your family came up with.