Two things you can do to make the most of quarantine
Happy Monday!!!
Quarantining in our homes since March 2020 has been rough! Learning to work, run a school, attend online school and spend all day every day with your family has been a real adjustment, but here are a few things I try to do every day to make it easier for me and my family.
The two things that I’ve been doing on a regular basis that makes all of this extra time that we spend at home better are:
1) Visualize Progress
What I mean by that isn’t necessarily visualizing a light at the end of the tunnel, it’s taking a step back and looking at everything we’ve overcome to get to where we are now and that puts me in a better mood.
So, looking back at what we’ve started:
- Kids couldn’t go back to school
- We would all be working from home
- We had to become teachers
- We had to change our professional lives
- We would have to adapt to these new shared environments
As I look back and think about those and actually visualize how those realities have changed, it reminds me of all of the challenges we’ve overcome. All of the steps we’ve taken to make our lives better and stronger. All of the things that we’ve learned like how to cook because you are spending more time at home and we’re not going out to eat. All of the games that our family has invented to enjoy with each other because we haven’t been able to go out to places like trampoline parks and other fun places. All of these have made the family bond tighter.
We’ve also noticed an increase in the strength it takes to overcome the temptations to go on vacation and get out around people in our favorite places.
So, that’s how I visualize all of the things we’ve accomplished since COVID hit that make us stronger and make us better. That reminds me that it hasn’t been that bad. It wasn’t the end of the world when we couldn’t buy toilet paper, we survived.
2) Continually Make Connections
The simplest ways to make connections are through social media or a phone call, but I challenge you this week to make a connection in a more unique way. Write a note to somebody about a significant experience you have shared with each other. Find ways to connect with people outside of the standard phone call, text message or social media post to make a deeper, more unique connection. I have learned that when I put in the extra work to make those connections, even with the people around me, the time spent at home isn’t so bad. You will still have interaction and you will have the ability to send some positive energy to somebody.
The challenge this week is to connect with somebody in a non-traditional way. I like writing notes, they’re a great way to reach out and let people know you’re thinking about them, reminisce about better times. When they receive it, it makes them feel better and you feel better.
So, the two things to focus on are:
- Remember & visualize how far we’ve come
- Make a special unique connection with somebody
Those are the two things I’ve been working on in my time quarantining at home.
