Quarantine Tips

How to embrace the best during the unknown.

Unemployed? Working from home? Lacking basic social connection? Yeah, me too. No matter who you are and what you do, the recent months of upheaval have brought some change. Whether you’re in quarantine lock-down or are just missing your loved ones, the tips below will help you navigate the collective new normal.

In case you are wondering what makes me an authority on social distancing survival, here is my resume, in no particular order. I have endured an unjust firing from a job I was fully invested in as a restaurant manager. Prior, my career as a federal National Park Service ranger was ripe with relocating, waiting, bureaucracy, and tolerating an inefficient job hiring system. This created days, weeks, and sometimes months insecurity. At last count, my total number of jobs were 45 and I’m 31 (I have been fired once). I have lived in four different states and was a failed digital nomad for multiple months. In my free time I often go on extended wilderness trips, either solo or with a few other souls. These experiences all are drastically different, but have a common thread of the unknown, vulnerability, and temporary insecurity. The tips below helped in all of these situations. Take what you like and leave the rest. Enjoy.

1. Embrace the change:A global pandemic has thwarted our normal. You are here now. Enjoy the process. Seldom do we get the chance to figure out what we want in life. There are many elements we cannot control, but currently we are forced to slow down. Own that, and take a look at your day to day. What serves you and what doesn’t? Embrace the good and eliminate the bad.
2. Be organized: Create a daily routine or, if that’s not possible, then at least a single daily ritual. Making the bed and meditation do wonders for me. This can help ground you and add organization to an otherwise unstructured day.
3. Feel gratitude: Even in the worst of situations we can list our gratitude(s). Simply acknowledging these things can brighten your perspective. Do you have a privilege that others may not? Be grateful.
4. Make time for friends: This looks different now, but will help ease loneliness. Connect in any way you can. Phone calls are back, teleconferencing in, slide into those DMs, and try a new app. We live in an age where connecting digitally is easy and abundant. Find a way to do it. I never thought I would have conversations on GoodReads Books and Strava, but hey, that’s where we are at today.
5. Laugh: Use that internet connection to watch something that makes you fall over laughing. Listen to a ridiculous podcast or read The Onion. It is easier than ever to get wrapped up in being concerned right now. If necessary, set a reminder on your phone to laugh for 30 minutes a day.
6. Volunteer: Remember that privilege that was acknowledged earlier? It’s time to pay it forward if you can. Volunteering is tricky when we are asked to stay home. But resources are needed, so donate. Give what you can online. Social currency and advocacy work too. Find a way to give something in these odd times, if you are able.
7. Exercise: You may have the time and no excuse. Find something active you love to do and pursue it. Join a virtual gym, do yoga, run, or get into video work out classes. This time can be isolating and narrow thinking is deadly. Plus, endorphins are awesome!!!
8. Read: Read this and read that. From Dr. Seuss to Thoreau, read it all. Magazines, old sports columns, recipe listicles, that book you never finished whatever it may be, pick it up and read it. Or help your kids with what they’re reading. Reading is a great outlet to take you far away from quarantine.
9. Embrace your mentors: Think about those who matter to you and have been influential. Maybe it’s your kid, mother, or someone you’ve never met. Find a way to reach out to that person. It could be as simple as a text or as bold as a letter to a famous author. You’ve got the time, so make those large leaps.
10. This is not forever: It may not seem like it, but this too shall pass. We are plagued with information and misinformation. Filter what you take in, but listen to the rules imposed by your own state. Things will improve and life will come out of the house again. Hold on to that thought.

These tips have worked for me. I would just like to restate that I’m no expert, but I have picked up some things along the way. Obviously, I have no kids and a privilege of time. But we are all in this together, and we will come out on the other side. That day, we will not “go back to normal”; it will be different. Exactly how is up us. What do you want that to look like? Think about it and — don’t eat too much. Go with love, and be kind to yourself.