Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, a lot of the people out there, would willingly or unwillingly, be in self-isolation.
Self-isolation does not mean you’ve got the virus, but it also serves as a beforehand precautionary measure.
However, people’s day-to-day lives have always been surrounded with being in the office, for most part of their days. Now, with self-isolation, and if you’re working from home or not, it’s more than obvious that you’d end up wondering what to do with your days now.
Sure, you’d end up spending it on leisurely activities, such as watching films or tv series/ surfing the internet, but you don’t know how long the isolation may continue and how long would those same activities interest you.
Through this blog post, I want to send a different kind of a message, for the people out there, with what can you do in self-isolation (now or anytime later, in life too).
Self-isolation is quite a beautiful time in our lives, sure the timing of it may not be right at the moment, but, in general terms, for sure.
It’s a time which can be used to reflect upon yourself, know what you’re doing right, how has the past been for you, what steps can you take to change your future.
It’s a time to retrospect, to learn, to grow, to build yourself, to upgrade your skills, and also, at the same time, to relax, to chill, to calm your mind, to calm yourself, to get away from everything else in life.
This time of self-isolation, is for your mind.
You have the choice to use it wisely, every step you take decides whether that time is spent in an enjoyable manner or not.
Here’s a list of things you can do/ work on (if you’re ready to spend this time on yourself) –
A. Meditate
Any and all kinds of meditation, is good for you. Meditation can be done in various forms, and you can do it anyhow you want,
In the form of music, a walk, swimming, driving around, reading – it has been found that different activities can introduce a different meditative vibe within you – so whatever you feel is right for you.
However, the basic form, that we all know of, and the best way to meditate is to sit in an upright position, close your eyes, and focus. Focus on keeping your mind silent for a while. Focus on what your mind tells you at this time. Focus on what the body tells you at this time.
You can start with a few minutes and build it up from there.
B. Read
Another essential way of building yourself, your skillset, your mind is to read. The power of reading has innumerable advantages, but the key is to pick a genre/ style of writing which interests you. Pick a book which will bring value to you, which will make you think differently – once you start, you can build that habit as you read and in no time, it’ll become a part of your day.
C. Upgrade Your Skills
You can use this time of self-isolation to also upgrade your skills. There are courses, lessons, guides on the internet, that you can use at your disposal to strengthen yourself.
If you find a certain field of interest fascinating, if you want to build up on a certain skill, if you want to level up, you can spend that time on doing so.
It is, at the end, up to you, to schedule your day in a way, that can help you grow in every aspect of life.
D. Practice Gratitude
One of the most important things in life, is to practice gratitude. It is something that has to be practiced by yourself, every day, every hour, it is something that you have to feel.
With the power of gratitude, you learn to enjoy life for what it is, you learn the importance of life, you learn to enjoy the minute things in life, you learn to enjoy the process and everything that you do.
It is something that we often forget amidst the race of life. However, once you start spending the self-isolation time wisely, you then start to enjoy the beauty of life.
E. Practice Journaling
When you work on self-growth, another important element of that process is Journaling.
Not everyone is able to observe their life – their day from a non-judgemental point of view, that is the time when this wondrous activity comes into play.
When you write about your day, about your routine, about your process, your goals, your vision, you’re able to introspect your life in a way you haven’t able to before.
It gives you a different perspective, a different thought process, you then get a glimpse of your life and when you make those necessary changes on paper, you feel the power to do so practically as well.
That power is also felt when you constantly write about what you want and are then able to convert that written energy into bringing it to life.
F. Eat Food that’s good for the mind and the body
When you’re by yourself, when you are in complete power of choosing what you want to eat, when you feel every bite of what you eat – with time, you become conscious of your eating habits.
You tend to realize what is good for you, what isn’t. Whether that food is an asset for your body or a liability.
With self-isolation, also comes this consciousness – which is again lost, in the race of life. When this happens, you start making the right decisions in life, and also with your eating habits.
You now want to eat what’s good for you, for your body, for your mind. You will ultimately make the right choices, you don’t need anyone to tell you what’s right to eat and what’s not.
G. Limit your Smartphone Usage
By now, if you’re following all the pointers, you’ll know the importance of self-consciousness, self-growth and how that time is then consumed for other activities.
One of them is the smartphone usage, used for different purposes, but mostly for entertainment. Now the question arises, how much of that usage is bringing value to you.
Whether that usage of content is helping you grow, or whether that short phase of contentment is enough to trump long-term happiness.
That question and this thought process is enough for you to understand how would you like to use your smartphones and what kind of changes are you now looking to make.
H. Consume news for information, not absorption
Another important element, which happens when you’re by yourself, is the consumption of news.
The explanation is to be up-to-date with everything that is going on.
The problem arises, when instead of consuming that information, you get absorbed by it. You let it sway your emotions, your thoughts and now your actions or words are defined by what the news sources tell you. You are not in control.
The working of the news sector depends on views, and the more controversial they make it, the better for them. What we, as consumers, fail to realize that it is also playing with our minds, our thoughts and our actions.
The better way is to, just consume it and not get absorbed by it. Again, this is better said than done – but with practice and mindfulness, you can then differentiate between the two processes.
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These are some of the ways where self-isolation can do wonders for you, you can use it to your advantage and help grow yourself and your life.
Sure, these things sound serious at first, but when you make it a part of your life, they seem extremely enjoyable and obviously, beneficial to you as well.
However, its not always about working on yourself and working on your self-growth.
That alone time can be used for different purposes as well, as long as you balance your time properly.
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You can use your time on watching some good movies and tv series out there, it sounds a bit ironical to what was said above, but if you watch the good ones, there’s a lot of value addition as well.
Plus, entertainment is entertainment. The key is to be conscious with your time management and not forget what time it is, with non-valuable time-consuming activities.
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Before I end, let me also take this opportunity to highlight another important factor for a lot of you, who will be reading this.
If you aren’t content/ satisfied with your day-to-day, you can also take advantage of this self-isolation time in building your side hustle.
A side hustle which interests you, which you feel passionate about and take this time to learn about it, to build it, work on it and ultimately introduce it to the market.
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Without realizing the importance of self-isolation, most of us generally see it as, “Oh, we can’t do this, we can’t do that”.
However, once you realize its advantages, you then know how you can make it work for yourself.
Sure, I’ll say this again, the timing of this forced self-isolation (due to coronavirus) may not be right – but, you can use it to your advantage.
Once things become alright, instead of getting back to the running around lifestyle from before, you can still use this self-isolation time then and use it for your benefit.
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P. S. If you’re happy with where you are in life, with what you do, you can continue to do. This post is for those who want to learn, grow, be happy in life altogether, not just at work and are not able to turn things around, with the way their life is currently running.
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If we aren’t connected on Instagram, let’s connect – @rth24
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