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The unfortunate and unexpected pandemic has shaken us up more than we could ever imagine in our worst nightmare. COVID-19 barged in like a storm, interrupted our routine and has left us in fear.
It is invisible and for now seems invincible too. It is driving us nuts and for social people, it is a form of depression. Shifting our perspective to light, you can still call yourself lucky given the fact that you are secure amidst the four walls unlike those battling against the virus. On that note, don’t forget to be grateful.
Let’s get a little philosophical and say that we can optimistically tweak our mindset in this pessimistically twisted situation. Always easier said than done, but it has to begin somewhere and we have to make the tough going easier with productive and interesting ideas to sail through this phase.
Are you ready to breakthrough your prisoner mind and seek happiness in the little or more that you have at home? To all the isolated or quarantined men and women out there, gear up and read through productive things to do at home during the lockdown period.
Read: What Happens To Your Body When You Are Quarantined? Know The Facts!
Simple Tips To Survive This Lockdown Period
“Where there is a will, there is a way” – Its time to live this quote.
A few of us have made peace with staying isolated and the rest of us are still getting used to it. What if we have the right things to do, won’t it make our life easier?
Trust me, isolation is not a bad idea, one- you are safe, two – this is time to know yourself better, spend time with family, keep yourself fit and engaged with good things.
So have the will to smile and spend this isolation in the best way you can. Here is everything you can do at home.
#No 1 – Time Yourself
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As you wake up or before your head meets the pillow while you go to bed, plan as to how you want to start and end your new day. Keep yourself organized so that you don’t feel lethargic at home.
Talking of doing your tasks, get done with your primary task, begin with your household chores and office work. Then move into doing whatever you want. To have this done effectively, you need to time yourself.
Set a timer and move to the next task as your alarm rings. Heard of timeboxing? Check it out on Clockify (R) to get better insights. Take this seriously and do it, you will experience wonders.
#No 2 – Devote 15 Minutes To Watch A Video
Pick up the kind of video that suits your interest and get involved. More the involved you are, better for your mind and well-being. Probably, you will discover a new theory or end up following a motivational speaker. The minutes is worth it, utilize it to the fullest.
If you are stuck as to what to watch or hear, just open youtube, install Spotify or call a friend and ask him/her to suggest something interesting.
If none of it is working for you, watch a hilarious video and that will work as a therapeutic medicine too. Sounds good?
#No 3 – ‘Rock And Roll’ Or ‘Squat And Jump’ – Exercise Regularly!
Don’t station yourself and hug laziness just because you are isolated, it can end up making you obese. For a healthy mind (R) and body you need to have enough movement.
Be it 10 minutes or half an hour, choose exercises that you can do indoors. You can climb your stairs more than 5 times, jump 100 times, blast the music to rock and roll, squat, lift weights, plank and do whatever you enjoy.
Here is why you should exercise regularly
- To sleep well
- Feel active
- Burn calories
- Reduce stress
- Boost immunity
You have a choice to make, either roll on your body and feel like a vegetable or workout with dedication for 10 to 30 minutes.
#No 4 – Wave A ‘Hello’ To Silence – Meditate!
For people who find meditation not so cool or boring, you are deceived by the silence. The moment you close your eyes, leave aside everything and just sit quiet for 5 minutes, you will sense the vibration in your body. They are positive!
Here’s the deal, meditate for not more than 5 minutes. Remember, you don’t have to strain your mind and focus on an object or stop your thoughts.
Allow your thoughts to come in, when they see that you are not beating yourself up to push them out, they will get tired and go away automatically. However, keep up the consistency, this disappearing of thoughts doesn’t happen overnight. It is a gradual process.
If you think meditating with melodious music is a good idea, go for it. Sit comfortably and meditate the way you want.
#No 5 – Date A Skill
When you are away from work and have free time, you can invest half an hour every day in dating a new skill. Metaphorically, its said date a skill instead of master a skill as it sounds interesting and you are likely to be more involved.
Sign up for an online course, learn through videos or learn it from a person you know. The skill can be anything in this world. Could be a soft skill, technical skill or a creative skill.
Get to know details about whatever you learn, be as curious as you would be to know things about a person you are dating. Most importantly, love what you are doing and put your skills to use.
For instance, if you are learning how to write a poem. After looking up for videos, learning ways to rhyme and reading other poems, you should put your skills to use by trying to write a poem of your own. Could be a silly, simple or complex one. In the end, it is important to attempt and use what you learnt.
Towards the end of this isolation period, you will be glad to have added a skillset to your learning.
Importance of learning a skill
#No 6 – Flip Through Pages Of A Book
You can boost your creativity, add new words to your language, improve how you communicate and store knowledge in your mind by flipping through pages of a book.
For avid readers, the isolation period is their best time to connect with books. Conversely, for those who don’t like reading, you have audio books as an option.
Read just three pages a day and it will do you good, keep a scribbling pad handy to jot down interesting things you come across. It is essential that you choose your type of book. There is fiction, science, technology, romance, literature, drama etc.
To make reading fun, have a cup of coffee or warm soup.
#No 7 – Enjoy A Power Nap
During this isolation period you can make the most of a twenty-minute power nap and feel like you’ve conquered energy.
Why are power naps good?
- Improves productivity
- Improves mood
- Good for an effective memory
- Boosts cognitive abilities
- Lowers the risk of heart problems
- Improves alertness
- Boosts immunity (R)
Therefore, enjoy taking a power nap because it is much better than not sleeping at all. Don’t hesitate to take a power nap if you didn’t sleep well the previous night.
#No 8 – Get In Touch With Family And Friends
Why not take it positively and do it right?
Everything you can do
- Call up friends you haven’t spoken to in ages
- Create groups on social media and talk to everyone possible
- Connect with your family members at home
- Spread love and care to your aged parents and grandparents
Checking with your people and making the effort to stay in touch helps in improving the emotional connection (R) with your dear ones.
#No 9 – Devote Time For Hobbies
A hobby keeps sadness away!
Staying busy with your hobby is the most satisfying feeling in the world. As work, exercise, learning will keep you busy all day. You can stay engaged with your hobby once in two days.
Whether your hobby is to sing, paint, compose a song or design sketches. Do justice to your hobby by giving it time.
Pursuing your hobby will help you work better and feel worthy of yourself. If you haven’t found any hobby yet. Here is a list of interesting things to do.
- Watch different kind of movies – inspirational, thriller, comedy, love stories
- Learn new words and frame sentences of your own
- Sketch whatever comes to your mind or choose a picture to see and sketch
- Cook new recipes by trying different cuisines – go to allrecipes.com or eatingwell.com
- Listen to a new song everyday
- Learn a new language
- Try handmade craft – you can make antique things for your home or make use of waste by making something productive
- Play an indoor sport – this should de-stress you
- Standing at your window, click pictures of nature and people passing by
- Get on to Udemy.com and enroll for a hobby that is in your budget
- Watch documentary films – it will add value to your life
- Try Scrapbooking and put your creativity to use
- For the women – you can try new makeup and learn hairstyles
- If there is a writer within you, write short stories and poems
#No 10 – Nurture Your Bond With Nature
Ways to get close to nature
- Take a walk in your balcony
- Take a look at the sunrise and sunset
- Water the plants in your house, grow more plants, add necessary pesticides and clean your garden if you have one
- Listen to all the birds chirping
- Watch butterflies and honeybees moving around bright flowers
- Look at how leaves move from one direction to another when there is lot of breeze
- Smell wet mud for a while
- Let sunlight kiss your body
- Watch the stars and moon from your window
- If you live close to the beach, listen to the waves and watch them
Given the fact that we are all supposed to stay isolated, make sure to appreciate and admire nature from the open space in your home. Do not step out.
#No 11 – Ride Into The Memory Lane
For all you know, you might end up getting in touch with an old friend whom you’ve not spoken to in a long time. Apart from people, you would even get to look at the places you travelled to and the things you did there.
#No 12 – Clear The Clutter And Alter Your Setup At Home
If you are organized by nature, you will be glad to clean the clutter in your shelves and rest of your house whenever you are free. Apart from this, if you want to experiment something new, you can change the way things are set up in your kitchen, living room and bedroom. Enjoy this during the isolation.
Adapting to change is good. The more you make your home a cool and interesting place with better ideas, the better you will feel to get used to the isolation.
Here is all that you can do for your home
- Dedicate 30 minutes to cleaning one portion of your home
- Don’t stress much, let everyone at home take up equal responsibility in cleaning the house
- To entertain yourself, play some good music while cleaning
- Clean every part of your house, beginning from the doormat to the dust in your shelf
- Discard what is of no use and give away what you are not going to use to the needy
- Use your creativity in shuffling things at home
#No 13 – Practice Kindness
Gather yourself and help people during this time. Here are some things you can do!
- At this time use media to find out where there is a need and donate food to those places that are around you
- Reach out to your family, neighbors, and friends to see if they need anything for the house.
- Get in touch with doctors you know and give them all the support you can.
- Even if one small help can save two or three people in this world, it is worth it. Go for it!
#No 14 – Indulge In Self-Grooming
We all need to groom ourselves once in a week or a month. Showing interest in grooming talks about how much interest you take in yourself. Since you are at home, you have enough time to enjoy pampering your skin, hair and style.
To boost confidence and treat yourself well, one should do self-grooming. This is a good way of being busy. Here are ideas on ways to groom yourself.
Men
- Apply a face pack to cleanse, moisturize and make your skin glow
- Apply a hair pack to revitalize your hair
- Take a nice shower every day
- Use a nice perfume
- Trim your beard
Women
- Apply a face pack to cleanse, moisturize and make your skin glow
- Do a manicure or pedicure
- Apply a hair pack to revitalize your hair
- Groom your nails – change your nail polish and pick an interesting nail art
- Try a new hairstyle
- Follow a good cleansing routine every day
- Every night put two drops rose water on cotton and place it for two minutes on your eyes
- Get rid of the unwanted hair – on your arms, legs, under arms and bikini
- Explore on different makeup ideas based on the color of dress you are wearing
Grooming won’t just boost your confidence, but it will even teach you how to give time to yourself, value your body and look presentable.
Since you won’t be stepping out for a while, you must be wondering if the grooming is necessary. Nevertheless, grooming is necessary to look presentable when you look at yourself in the mirror.
#No 15 – Stay Clean And Eat Healthily
You are responsible for your own health and during the isolation, you need to take good care of your body. The whole idea during this isolation is to act responsible and stay hygienic.
Healthy habits to keep away from COVID-19. Follow them!
Hygiene tips
- Wash your hands every 3 hours. Scrub the liquid wash between your fingers and around your hand for 20 seconds.
- Keep a sanitizer handy. If you are forgetting to wash your hands. Use a sanitizer every now and then. Sanitizer has alcohol and this ingredient can protect you.
- When you want to pick something, wrap a cloth on your hand and then pick it.
- When you want to cough or sneeze, use a cloth.
- Sanitize your hands after coughing or sneezing.
- Don’t use your hands to wipe your running nose.
- Keep distance from each other even at home.
- Use alcohol wipes to clean surfaces at home.
- Avoid snorting on used tools.
- Don’t share bottles and glasses. Eat or drink in your plate or bottle.
What to eat?
- Drink enough water.
- Have warm liquids – tea, coffee, soups.
- Don’t eat processed foods.
- Boost your health with citrus fruits and leafy vegetables.
- Consume neem leaves.
- Have turmeric milk. This is good for the immune system.
- Soak gooseberry in honey overnight. Add, black pepper or green pepper and have three tsp of this mixture, three times a day.
- Practice breathing exercises.
If you stay home, take the efforts to follow hygiene and eat healthy. You can try saving yourself from the virus. On the other hand, a healthy diet is essential for your body to function well.
Conclusion
COVID-19 has brought along uncertainty in every poor and rich man’s life. Either one of us is directly fighting against the virus or sitting indoors and feeling stressed. Doctor’s and the police are on their toes risking their life to do their best. They deserve to be appreciated and at the same time, we need to stop cribbing about being locked as we have many things to do at home during the lockdown.
Look at the bright side, you will never get this chance of being indoors and your chilled self ever again. While living through this phase, why not adopt to productive ways of passing time fruitfully?
Let this lockdown pave way for new hobbies, skills, productive work and good health!
