This is written during the COVID-19 lockdown in the USA.

Peculiar. Uncertain. Maddening. These are a few words that crossed my mind at the commencement of this lockdown. I’ll be honest, I cried. Saline solution slipped from my sad eyelids night after mystifying night. The question I had to ask myself was, why? What was so devastating that I allowed misery to be an appropriate reaction?

Remove emotion from the situation and you find a young girl, temporarily out of job, with a supportive family, a pantry stocked to the brim with food, light sockets glimmering bright, and time smeared all over her unappreciative hands. When emotion is added back into the equation, you see indications of fear behind her eyes. Anxiety is a natural reaction to uncontrollable change. I can understand a bit of nerves, but that does not mean I will allow myself to stew in their stifling current for long. Things could be worse of course. Many people will not have dinner on the table tonight; some will not make rent come the first of the month; some will not awaken to see the sunrise. Many of us are unlikely to fall into any of these categories. So yes, be a little scared, feel a little discomfort, then suck it up and focus on what you can control.

This month can act as an opportunity for us to spend time on our goals: physical, academic, spiritual, etc. Here is my compilation of tips to not only maintain sanity, but to benefit from your time at home.

1. Practice yoga to calm the mind

If there is one single thing that has helped me cope with the uncertainty this pandemic has produced, it is yoga. Taking time to focus on the breath and hold awakening poses has allowed me to separate, for a moment, from the external world and bring everything back into perspective. I recommend Yoga with Adriene on YouTube. Her 30-day Home program welcomes you into the peaceful sanctuary of your living room, a space we are all finding ourselves in regularly these days.

2. Set physical, academic, and spiritual goals

Let me guess, you set goals to go to the gym five times a week as your New Year’s resolution, but just haven’t found the time to squeeze it between work and preparing dinner. There are no excuses now. Stretch every day until you get that middle split. Download rocket language to finally start speaking French like you always said you would. Sit down and dive deep into the scriptures you practice but haven’t truly explicated for yourself. This is time you will never get back, why waste it? Replace work with one of your long-term aspirations and you will come out of isolation an improved human.

3. Set your finances in order

This is a hard time financially for millions of Americans. Though our ability to go to work and bring home the bacon is out of our control, we do have options to alleviate a bit of the financial burden.

These include: Filing for unemployment, Signing up for charities that send aid to affected workers, Getting a job babysitting, at a grocery store, or work-from-home jobs such as Amazon, Investing in the stock market while it’s at a low point. Note: this can be risky and intensify feelings of uncertainty.

4. Stay in touch with friends and family

We live in the age of technology. Text your friends, call your grandma, and FaceTime your parents. Isolation can wreak havoc on the mind of a social creature; therefore, it’s vital to our mental health to stay connected.

5. Maintain a daily schedule and practice discipline

Each day should have a focus and a schedule to adhere to, to some extent. For me personally, I wrote out a daily list of four achievable tasks. Direction and responsibility are two driving forces for sanity. This can be a great opportunity to practice discipline, an area that we often lack in or have room for improvement. Many of us are driven by deadlines set by our employer or, for some, their parents. This is the opportunity to prove you can follow strict guidelines without an external driving force. Some ways to practice discipline include: going to bed on time, waking up on time, making your bed in the morning, working out every day, limiting screen time, and eating nutritious foods.

6. Deep dive into your spring cleaning

Organize, deep clean, and eliminate clutter in one room of your home a day. By the end of two weeks, your home should be sparkling and fresh.

7. Go outside

In case you forgot, IT’S SPRING! Some great games to play outside if you have a roommate include, Frisbee, corn hole, and basketball. If you are alone go for a walk, bike ride, or paint the landscape of your backyard like a modern day Monet..

8. Test out new recipes

Many of us eat most of our meals from restaurants or get caught in the rut of eating the same home cooked meal every other week. This is a great time to mess around in the kitchen and add some new dishes to your repertoire of dinner options.

9. Set up a communal game of crosswords in the bathroom

This might sound odd, but hear me out. When you make your daily trip to the toilet, begin a crossword puzzle and leave it in plain view with a pen for the next attendee. Each time you enter the loo, you will be working toward a common goal with your housemates. This has been a surprisingly fun result of being trapped inside for weeks. If toilet crosswords are not your speed, some entertaining games I recommend are: Risk, Golf, Catan, Scrabble, Beer Pong

10. Create a spring music playlist

Those songs you listened to all winter long are tired. Hop on Spotify and start building a playlist that flows with the blooming flowerings and the bucketing rain.

11. Read books and watch TV

The fact is, we have a lot of extra time on our hands. Though it can be tempting to binge the hours away on Netflix and Hulu, I highly recommend reading. It is relaxing, entertaining, and feels more constructive than screen time. My top two book recommendations are Educated by Tara Westover and Behind Her Eyes by Sarah Pinborough. If you do decide to opt for a TV show, Better Call Saul and Lost are a couple worthy picks.

12. Pamper yourself

Give your skin a break, ladies. Every day I sponge a layer of tan colored liquids into my pores and scribble black lines around my eyes. This causes bumps and irritation all over. It has been a massive relief taking a hiatus from the daily makeup routine. Additionally, this may be a good time to cut your hair, weave in some highlights (if you know how), pluck your eyebrows, deep condition your skin and hair, and paint your nails. Get wild with it because who are you going to see anyway?

13. Keep a daily journal

Journaling is an excellent tool for structuring your thoughts and relieving pressure from emotionally disruptive ideas that live inside your head. It is also very interesting to look back at the person you were years ago through your writing.

14. Help your roommates achieve their goals

The best way to relieve stress during a time such as this is to help out other people. Your family members or roommates surely are harboring burdensome to-do lists. Be their partner in reorganizing a chaotic closet or adhering to a workout program. Often times a little push from another person is all the activation energy needed to start making progress. It can be extremely rewarding for you as well.

“Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over, instead of craving control over what you don’t.” – Steve Maraboli

Stay safe, see you on the other side.