[Attempting to] Thrive During Quarantine

I haven’t felt the urge to write in a little while, mostly because the world has flipped on its head over the past month or so. We’ve been in quarantine for roughly 2ish weeks, and I’ve been working from home for a little less than a month.

I work for a school district, so when the governor closed schools on March 13, my work went into overdrive. I was swamped answering calls, updating the website, sending out communications to families and more. Now that I’ve found more of a rhythm and things have leveled off (a little, anyway), I thought I would share some of the things I’ve found most helpful in dealing with this entire mess of a situation.

Find a routine. It’s taken a few weeks, but I now have a fairly solid routine that I really enjoy. I’m up early, usually around 6:30, and spend a few minutes cleaning up the house and making coffee. Each morning, I strive to get 2,000 steps in before I sit down to do work (which sometimes means I pace back and forth in my living room like a crazy person), and then I write down in a blank notebook the day’s to-do’s, an hour-by-hour schedule, and five things I’m grateful for that day. After all that is done, I work for a few hours (using my new stand-up desk which has honestly been a game changer), and then take a break around 11 to work out. After that it’s lunch, a quick call to my mom to check in, and then spend the rest of the afternoon finishing up with work/meetings. I stop to make dinner around 6 and then spend the rest of the night with Tom and Zoe (my little sister who moved in with me just before the shit hit the fan in order to work at a local restaurant, which shut down approximately one week after she got here). We’ve been trying to find new shows or movies each night to watch, but we also “play” a little trivia by watching an episode or two of Jeopardy, which is a GREAT (and underrated) way to pass the time.

Focus on movement. I’ve always loved exercising, but recently I’ve really started dedicating at least an hour a day to working out. I’m privileged enough to have a Peloton bike, so I ride 3-4 days a week, mixing in some yoga and weights most days too. In addition to the 2,000 steps before 8 a.m., I also try to get a nice long walk in with Zoe at least once a day, especially now that the weather is getting nicer. Honestly, compared to working in my office, I feel like I’m moving more now than I have before and it’s something I intend to carry back into “normal” life.

Clean and organize. I’ve been saying FOR YEARS that I want to clean out the house and purge all of our belongings that we no longer need, but that I didn’t have the time. Well, I don’t have that excuse anymore. I’ve been spending weekends going through the house (since weekends seem to be the time where the boredom sets in the most), and I’ve seen such a difference in my overall attitude. Not only does it eat up some time, but I think the idea of cleaning out something, even if it’s just going through the junk drawer in the living room, brings a sense of accomplishment to the day… even if you’re just spending the rest of the day binging Tiger King.

Find joy and gratitude. Love her or hate her, I’ve been following Rachel Hollis’s free Next 90 Days challenge for the past two weeks. The idea is that every day you do your best to complete the Five to Thrive (drink half your body weight in ounces of water, move your body for 30 minutes, write down five things you’re grateful for, give up a category of food you know you shouldn’t be eating, get up an hour earlier and use that time for yourself). Sure, it’s a little hoaky, but having a list of things to accomplish each day has been super helpful during this time. Additionally, there is a theme each week of the challenge, and they send out a 30-45 min video lesson on that theme. Last week, it was all about perspective and this week the focus is on finding joy. For me, that’s translated to spending some time every morning writing down things I’m grateful for, because honestly, I am so lucky. The big things currently making the list? My family is all still healthy, both Tom and I are still receiving a paycheck, Zoe is here with me, and the only big sacrifice I am being asked to make is simply STAY HOME. If you would have asked me 6 months ago to stay home for a month — when I was go-go-going nonstop and felt so overwhelmed — I would have jumped for joy.  Instead of focusing on the worry and anxiety (which, trust me, I have that too), I’m trying to really think about my quarantine as being a privilege. It is a luxury that all I am being asked to do is work and stay inside my home that’s filled with food, Netflix and a comfy couch. Not everyone has that luxury.

Give yourself some grace. This is a weird time, ya’ll. I have been trying to use it to focus on improving my health and my work, but I definitely don’t want to make it seem like I’ve been handling this perfectly. For comfort, I’ve been turning to lots of snacks and sugar. I have days where my anxiety feels overwhelming and I’m not sleeping soundly. I worry about Tom being out working and potentially getting exposed, but I also worry about him not working and figuring out how to support ourselves with a single paycheck. I worry about my Dad who has bad asthma and an 80% lung capacity. I worry about myself, since I have asthma. I worry about our wedding in September, and whether it will happen or if it’ll be canceled and we’ll lose thousands of dollars. It’s hard, and it’s hard for everyone. So even though I’m challenging myself to work out, eat better and focus on the positive, there are days where that just does not happen. There are days when I just want to sit and watch Housewives while eating a big old bowl of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. And I think that’s okay. We all need those days, so long as you can pick yourself up and keep moving forward.

We’re all trying our best to get through this, and that can look different for everyone, but this is what has been working for me. I hope it helps someone.

Above all, stay safe and stay home. I hope to see everyone on the other side of this stronger, happier and healthier.