The governments of most coronavirus-hit countries have imposed home lockdowns and strongly instructed citizens to practice social distancing in a desperate bid to limit the pandemic outbreak.
Authorities are only permitting people to exit their houses for emergencies like quick shopping for groceries, pharmaceuticals, or visiting a hospital for treatment. This is going to be difficult, and will take serious resolve from all of us – but ultimately it is what we need to do for the greater social good.
Almost all citizens have suddenly found themselves prohibited from going to work or socializing like they normally do, and found that their lives have been turned upside down as regional governments imposed unprecedented restrictions that were almost like a declaration of a state of emergency. People found themselves stuck with endless free time, not knowing what to do during home isolation.
The priority: Minimizing social interactions
Life is really simple, but we insist on making it complicated. – Confucius
So, what can we do to keep ourselves and our family sane as we apply this principle, and pull together for public health? For the sake of both our physical and mental health over the coming weeks, we need to find ways to integrate good chunks of physical activity into our daily schedule and stick to it. We need to think out of the box and do things that we have not done. And when doing so, we need to make sure that we maintain the minimum social distance from others with a similar mission. The good news is that this is completely doable.
Keeping active (and sane!)
One particular thing to emphasize is the importance of the physical activity. Being physically active is an essential ingredient for the health and wellbeing of the human being. It positively benefits us in countless critical ways, physically and psychologically. When we do not get the physical activity we are used to, it can affect us negatively. Most predominantly we feel it in our mood in the first instance, but we may not readily realize that it is a lack of activity that is bothering us (and our children).
Calm mind brings inner strength and self confidence, so that’s very important for good health. – Dalai Lama
As a rule, adults need at least 30 minutes of “moderate to vigorous physical activity” almost every day, while children need 60 minutes of this same level of physical activity every day. “Moderate to vigorous physical activity” is an activity that makes your heart and lungs work harder than they normally have to, and is usually considered to be a good fast walk or an activity such as jogging, running, and cycling. This is the level of intensity we need to move at to get a health benefit and to maintain our health and wellbeing.
We each need to identify ways to get the above physical activity built into our day now, with the added constraint of maintaining social distancing. What this means is that we do the activity with our family and we don’t send them outside to be active on their own.
Some ideas on how we might go about this include:
- Dance
- Yoga and Meditation
- Resistance bands and weights
- Skipping rope
- Household chores
- Gardening
- Cooking
- Grab a football, basketball, or a tennis ball. Be creative with the number of different ways you can play with this. Throw it, bounce it, kick it: your child will come up with lots of ideas if you ask them.
Do remember to keep building in an activity that really involves you and your family moving your whole body as this will give you heart health benefits as well as skill development benefits. I can promise you that building physical activity in a systematic way will have huge benefits for you psychologically in terms of how you all feel day to day in the short term. Rather than seeing this as a chore, let’s see it as an amazing opportunity to develop a positive physical activity relationship with our child, something that may well live and flourish long past the current crises.
Setting a target
Your living is determined not so much by what life brings to you as by the attitude you bring to life; not so much by what to you as by the way, your mind looks at what happens. – Khalil Gibran
Maintain a daily routine. A routine helps you maintain a sense of control over your life.
For people who are not used to working at home, a lack of structure can be confusing. If you have a set schedule you have targets to move toward.
My daily routine
I wake up early and finish morning chores. I do some strength-building exercises, stretching, Yoga, and finish off with meditation. Organize my day and prepare meals which adds to days structure. I shower and get dressed as if going to the office. I want the feeling I’m ready for work. Add fun activities for the evening and try and go to bed at the same time.
However, in these uncertain times, it is better to add extra skill or knowledge which takes up most part of the day when I am not flying.
- Brush up professional knowledge. I divide time between AOM/FCOM/QRH. Read aircraft accident/incident reports.
- Complete pending jobs like bank or insurance. Surprisingly, this list is very long.
- I have also pulled out my bucket list and set new targets to spice up the day. Something to amuse and distract me: reading material, videos, board games.
- I make sure to connect with people in the evening.
This is very anchoring.
In addition, I
- Send around jokes or funny emails or videos.
- Cut down on news consumption. Do not binge on movies, video games, or series.
- Humor is important. Watch funny movies, it’s a nice way to round out the day.
- If certain people are making you anxious, take a step back from them.
- A way to break isolation is to do something altruistic for someone else, like an elderly person in your building. Check up on them, maybe see if they need anything. That social connection makes you feel less cut off.
- For those living alone, maintain social contact. Develop a buddy system with people who you check in with daily and are your support system. Maybe have a friend stay with you.
As a caution, I would suggest,
- Put together all your financial documents in one place, along with a contact list of everyone you might need to call in case of an emergency.
- There should also be a point of a contact person who knows all of your passwords.
- Revisit your wills, just in case.
A silver lining
Sheltering from a natural disaster or living in an underground bunker during the war-like situation but being locked down in your own home with loved ones and all amenities for a pandemic is something I had never imagined in my entire life.
It is not a situation where there are no amenities, or bad food and crowded spaces. We are not in a bunker situation. We have proper water and electricity. We’re living in our own spaces.
Nobody knows how life would be after two weeks, but we can be reassured that authorities are constantly reassessing and re-evaluating the plans.
The positive side to all this chaos is that this could teach us to be more adaptive and creative, and we might discover new interests as we try to fight the boredom. Reconnecting and turning to families, I think, is very positive. This is also teaching us to think about what really matters.
Be safe.
