Let us start with embracing the fact that all of our lives have changed. Whatever life we have built for ourselves is being challenged in the face of a Global pandemic.
You could blame whoever you want government, WHO, China or the lady that ate the bat, but this doesn’t get better with that. You might have real job or real business to bring safely out of this chaos. Others are just busy without business making reports and presentations for their bosses.
The stress doesn’t end right?
We have total empathy for the challenges you face today.
One of the highest searched term this past few weeks is stress. People have lost their motivation of being alive and positive. You might feel the same. The stress of being inside, the anxiety of the future, the depression given by everyday news, you just want to end it all and come on track like before. The Good News is that you can.
A little mindful effort can make you your best version, even if you are locked inside. Let us share some secrets that have appeared from happily quarantined people.
Embrace the Truth
Go and switch off the news that you keep playing continuously, as if some miracle is waiting right round the corner. News are selling negativity right now, those whatsapp forwards and social media crap is making you anxious, nothing else. Just do one thing, stop browsing mindlessly and embrace the truth. The truth that our lives have been changed forever and we have to deal with it. Truth that the vaccine making will take time. The truth that staying home is staying safe. Every-day checking out the death toll is not a solution.
The solution is –
Embrace the truth. If you are living far away from family, prepare them for long delay in meeting again. Tell your heart that this is the new future. Way of jobs and education will change. Travelling, financial and buying patterns will change. But it’s all OK. Till the time we are alive to hug or call our family and friends, life is still a masterpiece and nobody can take away opportunities we dig everyday.
The practical way to embrace the truth is –
Speak the truth and add a sentence of strength and gratefulness in the end. This adds value in every-life you touch during these days. Try and practice this every day and you will start seeing results.
Find New Space
Sticking to your schedule where you transact with other human beings but for a limited amount of time like your home, job, classes or a social gathering is called your space. Lockdown has stolen this space from you and now you are all cranky all the time. Eating stress-food watching Netflix and sleeping. You are constantly surrounded by same people all the time. Your screen time has gone too high to be normal.
This all has contributed to your stress.
You need to find your new space with whatever limited environment you have. The ‘me-time’ is still in your hands. When you don’t grow, you stress. So, find a time and space in your home when you are alone. It can be morning, evening, late night, just make sure you find your own zone. In this zone you build your own freedom and happiness that involves you and your efforts.
Communicate with family members and roommates for this special space and its importance in your life. Following topics might help you in finding this space.
Find New Hobby
New is good, new is happy, and new brings that inner child to giggle inside you every-time. This child needs to be fed inside the walls but outside of your phone. Try something new, a hobby that you waited for a long time. I am asking to lessen your screen time also. When you are set on a screen your logical happy mind dies. It generates negative emotions that dominate everyday transaction and ruins your day in one way or another.
Here are few options for new hobbies to do –
Reading, Writing, videography, photography, designing, cooking, terrace, gardening, online teaching, doing tai-chi, music, karaoke, drawing, knitting etc.
Some other hobbies can make you money also like – share trading, running social media accounts, content creation, blogging, website creation for online businesses.
If you feel that the data above is redundant then I have some suggestions. Take up a hobby that you never thought of before quarantine and do it. You won’t believe the blast that might happen inside you.
Bonus
You can get books which are sanitised and delivered to your home.
visit KITABI CHAI dm them your favourite book and they will send it over.
Meditate
The power of meditation is beyond all measures. Exploring yourself when you have a little to worry about the time; it can be a gift of new life. There are few stops in the journey of a new meditator which he should pass.
At first, he is shy. He has to let those feelings go. Announce it to your family members and forget about them like they never exist.
Then he follows videos and gets confused. When to do and what to do? Just follow one video and stick to it.
Then he is tired or falls asleep. This is a common phase and an important stop.
If you have persisted the journey for these lockdown days, you will love the results. You will confide in your actions every day.
Meditation and Yoga are a powerful combination that can heal everything, even your stress.
Complete your Pending Tasks
A sense of completion sends your mind to a new realm. A place where you watch yourself grow consistently every day.
Admiral William H. McRaven
In one of his famous speech said –
“Start your day by making your bed. Sense of completion will motivate you to complete more tasks. And at the end of the day when you reflect, you will feel like a king and sleep like a baby.”
Distractions in quarantine times are very easy. You can turn into a bipolar of hardwork and laziness. What makes us stick to the plan is the sense of completion. It is like no other. Complete the books that you are reading, finish the art that you started or water the new plants in your garden. Whatever it may be, just check the mental checklist when something is done pat yourself on the back and move to another task.
You owe this activity to your soul that is tarnished with negativity and self-doubt. Take small steps to build a habit every-day.
Find Your IKIGAI
Oh! What the hell is this now?
IKIGAI?
Never heard of it.
IKIGAI is a Japanese concept of happy and prosperous living. It is a simple common point of four elements in your work and personal life: Love, Talent, Profession, and Mission.
All of these elements are suffering the damage of lockdown. For every life, it is said that there can be a unique IKIGAI on this planet. But what I am suggesting here is to find your Quarantine - IKIGAI. A place that seems a little impractical and difficult but not unachievable. You can find your new love-work, turn that into new talent, and apply new ideas to make it a professional wheel of making money and who knows it might turn into your life’s mission.
Quarantine - IKIGAI can help you find your purpose of life during this lockdown. It does not need to be a big business. It can be as simple as providing food to the needy or giving free lectures to poor students. It may open a whole other dimension to the way you think and act. And if you trust in the power of IKIGAI, you will be a transformed version of yourself.
The quarantine will end one day.
You will be roaming around doing regular stuff. Following the above 6 things will make sure that in the future when you reflect the person you were before and after the lockdown, you will simply smile and say –