Angry, frustrated, scared or bored? Maintaining a healthy and active mind is highly important during these testing times. Self-isolation and social-distancing can have a strong effect on one psychologically sometimes causing depression and anxiety. You could feel like you are doing nothing meaningful, irritated at the loss of personal freedom, financial tensions from being unable to work and just generally worried about yourself or your family members contracting COVID-19 or spreading it to others.
What you need to do is snap out of these feelings when they begin to sweep in and find ways to keep yourself happy and entertained at home (and yes watching TV or web series the whole day does not fall into this!). Consider this lockdown as an opportunity to unleash your inner creativity and talent with no limitations and grow as a person while distancing socially. As for now, the home is your oyster!
If there is something you wanted to learn but didn’t have the time earlier do it now! There are plenty of online classes that teach singing, dancing, painting or cooking. In this way, you are fully active physically and mentally and after all of this is over you can show off your talents among friends and family! If you are looking for fitness exercises at home, have fun learning cool moves through 20 – 40 minutes of yoga, dance or martial arts at home and feel re-energized.
If not online classes, find inspiration within your house itself. Look around for old stuff in your cupboards, storerooms or garages and get into the groove of upcycling!
Handmade candles using reclaimed wine or beer bottles is one of the best creatively satisfying DIY crafts for your home. For inspiration check out the beautiful range of naturally aromatic candles from Mojo Candles Co. which are made from reclaimed wine and beer bottles. Hand-cut, sanded and polished, these exquisite candles are hand-poured in small batches with natural soy wax and premium-grade fragrance oils and closed with a natural bark-finished Cork Topper to keep it dust free when not in use. So, with just a couple of essentials materials and tools, you can get those old bottles and put them into better use by lighting them up!
Apart from candles, you can also make your accessories using stuff like old fabrics, damaged rubber tires or sheets, leather from used and thrown shoes, or scraps of wood. For stitching bags or reinventing old clothes read the book Modern Mending which combines creativity with sustainability. Inspired by slow fashion the book teaches step by step instructions of a range of techniques from stitching to darning.
You can also create your sustainable customised jewellery like brands such as Champ Co., Erika Harder, Deadwood Creative, Eco Bling or One Happy Leaf. And if you have a large collection of earrings and want to organise them, craft your earring holder from scrap plywood sheets like Bon Maxie.
Aside from physical activities and crafts, get connected with books that motivate, inspire or simply make you happy! The book I Want to be Happy talks about how we can be happy through rest or having fun, whereas On Doing Nothing is all about finding inspiration in idleness. The Little Book of Hygge is about practicing a Danish way of living a life of comfort, warmth or togetherness and the book Moments of Mindfulness takes a journey through Indian wisdom. Likewise, for the creative ones a collection of visual wisdom from 50 leading members of the art and the design world can be found in Creative Pep Talk. And the ones looking to connect to yourself and the way you feel, the 28-Day Moon Turtle Mood Journal is a book of guided daily journaling designed to support mental wellness through discovering how your mind works by piecing together little clues that pop up every day. Along with these if you need some push in life, books such as Get Your Sh*t Together, Go F*ck, I Mean Find Yourself or You Might Find Yourself are of great help!
And last but not least, for the ones who are working from home now, learn the tricks on how to make your space a healthy home office. Organise yourself and your space by setting up a comfortable office at home, making sure you work for reasonable hours by sticking to a regular routine and most importantly keeping a workday mobility. For the latter, the fun physical exercises mentioned above can be of perfect use to get you to move!
With all of these ideas and tips make staying at home as an opportunity to fully embrace yourself. Stay home, stay safe and stay healthy!
