How to Survive Social Distancing
About a month ago, I shared a story about my recent bout with mania. It screwed up my life a whole lot! Since then, I’ve been slowly picking up the pieces — in my life and my brain. My workload shrank by about forty percent. I pulled out of an online certificate program that had just begun. My slow march towards health has also involved what I guess we’re now calling — thanks to the coronavirus — social distancing. This hasn’t been mandated by any institution, but it has been mandated by my own brain, and my own (temporary) limitations. All of which is to say, when I went into the hospital, my work, play, and study schedule bordered on oppressive. When I left the hospital, suddenly, I had very, very little to do, and very, very little I even could do. The main thing I had was the slow creep of time in the confines of my apartment. As many are finding out in recent days and weeks, this is not ideal!
The coronavirus pandemic is scary, without question. Personally though, I am pissed. I have finally found my feet, my sanity, my joy again, and I was finally starting to expand my life again. Coronavirus is threatening this expansion and encouraging me to shrink back from whence I came. I have spent nearly two months socially distancing myself, and now I’m expected to do it for another…how long? Thanks, I hate it. I suppose I have a leg up on others who are quarantined, or having to work from home or cancel plans, trips, etc. I’m freshly practiced. So, it seems only right to provide some tips I’ve picked up to keep myself from going insane (again.)
Dress comfortably, and for your own pleasure: some people say that you should dress as if you are going into the office. I say that’s nonsense. Dress in a way that makes you happy. There are few great pleasures in a socially-distant life; wearing fun pajama pants and an oversized fuzzy coatigan is absolutely one of them.
Have dance parties: can’t stress this one enough. Take a minute to find an album or a playlist that makes you move from you gut, and go. Don’t have a lot of space? Neither do I! Make do. Who cares! If you’re cooped up all day, chances are your body needs serotonin badly. Move it around a bit, and give your brain a boost.
Set your mood: this means something different to everyone, and may change depending on day or even time of day. I like to have a candle going, a nearby window open if the weather is good, and music playing. Whether you like it or not, this is where you are for a while. Be intentional about your space.
Journal: this one may be tough for some, especially those who have never had a journalling practice. But especially when you start to feel your body rise — there’s a reason we call it “crawling up a wall” — take a breath, open a notebook, and just put pen to paper. See what happens. You may not have — or think you have — that much to say. That’s fine! Most of my journal entries these days are only a few lines long. Even a few minutes of journalling is an opportunity to check in with yourself, to dream of something beyond the confines of your home, or what you’ll do when this crisis is over.
Pick up a hobby: is there a hobby you started to explore like five years ago for a few weeks, then quickly abandoned? Pick it up again? I have enough uncolored coloring books to last me for twenty coronaviruses. Maybe I’ll start listening to my vinyl again! I have definitely been reading more than I have before. Fiction, for the first time in forever. The world is scary. Fiction can be to, but at least it’s make-believe.
Make lavish meals: one day, I had almost nothing to do and decided to make a full Sicilian meal: caponata and rolled chicken with mozzarella and prosciutto, simply because I had the time and resources. I killed an entire evening, felt extremely accomplished, and fed myself for a full week.
Talk to your plants: it works, I swear to God.
From what I understand, as long as we take the right precautions, and as long as the government gets its act together (questionable, but we can hope), we will mostly get through the worst of this pandemic. A lot of people don’t quite have the luxury of being quite so twee about staying home, to be sure. Many jobs and lives are in jeopardy, and the social safety net is woefully insufficient for the most disadvantaged of us. In actuality, I’m not totally twee about it myself. I’m taking plenty of klonopin, I get it! My tautological point is, we don’t have to suffer more than we have to. We have the power to make it even a little bit better for ourselves. We are all capable of logging off Twitter.
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