13/03/2020
During this period, while many of us will be housebound for extended periods, often with partners, children and/or teenagers, it is important to look after our own mental health and that of those around us, and also to find ways to minimise disputes and conflict within the home.
It is important during this period to take time for yourself. Walk in the garden, take a long shower or bath, go into another room to read or meditate, dance or just sing your heart out. Focus on self care. Take breaks from each other. Let small issues slide and encourage others to do the same.
From a psychological perspective, key to successfully navigating a period of quarantine will be a sense of purpose. There is only so much Netflix we can watch. Find your purpose. Work on finding it now, so you have something prepared. Help others find a purpose too.
Now is an ideal time to get small jobs done which will benefit the household. Declutter, redecorate, clean those out of sight areas. Work can be done in the garden – maybe dig that vegetable patch you’ve been planning to start for years, and enlist children to help out. Catalogue your books or DVDs. Personally, I plan on scanning all the old printed photographs which we have in the house, and saving them into online albums. There are excellent free online courses, such as those available through FutureLearn or Coursera. This might be a good time to learn the basics of a language, or improve your computer skills. It is important to have something to focus on, and also by the end of the quarantine period to feel you have accomplished something.
For children and teenagers, now might be a good time to take up or improve on crafts such as drawing, calligraphy, knitting or crochet, or music. YouTube have excellent easy-to-follow resources, and there are Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest groups for further help. Teenagers may want to use the opportunity to beat high scores in games, and as long as this is relatively time-limited, it can be a good distraction. It may also be an opportunity for parents and children to improve on skills such as cooking or baking, and an ideal time to teach children, no matter how young, to help in the kitchen, or have older children cook a meal from scratch.
For older people, particularly those who are in isolation, it is especially important to have purpose. Now might be a good time to ask older relatives to record stories from their lives or work on a family tree, so it can be passed on to future generations. Questions can be used to trigger memories, and younger people could be enlisted to generate questions which could be communicated daily.
Above all, try to remember that by staying at home, you are doing what is best for society as a whole; you are protecting the elderly and the vulnerable, and that’s the best purpose of all. Be kind, to others and to yourself.
