COVID19: How to be mentally strong during the lockdown

We humans are not programmed to stay inside for very long. Staying at home for long can be very very unsettling and with the given situation outside, it only makes it worse. Everyone you know is locked down. You cannot visit the market, cannot hangout with friends, cannot go outside for a run, cannot got out for lunch/dinner at your favourite joint. You are getting bad news from all around the world which worries you even more. There is a need to keep ourselves very calm and composed amidst these unwarranted sequence of events. I am too getting anxious about the whole situation sometime but I know I am strong enough to fight it. We have to be mentally strong for ourself, for our loved ones and for the good times to come. There are some ways in which we can try to prepare ourself and fight the traumatic situation.

1. Make some routine and be more disciplined.

A disciplined routine is the best thing you can do to help yourself. If you are spending your time in an unmanaged way, it will make you bored, leave you less productive and add to anxiety. With a more disciplined approach you will have enough time with yourself to be relaxed. You will have a less burdened lifestyle. Try to fix a time – for waking up in the morning, having your meals, your exercises – essentially all the things which you are doing on a daily basis. Once these timings are in place and have been followed for few days you will realise how relaxed the daily life has become.

2. Exercise Regularly.

Exercising is a great stress buster be it in any form. You can try some yoga, pushups, aerobics etc, anything can be really helpful . Now is a good time to add regular exercising in your routine. It will give a boost to the mental health and boost your confidence. Meditation and breathing exercises can destress a lot, so one must try them out. There are many online classes these days which I think can be really helpful.

3. Talk to your family, relatives and friends.

Last night I called 3 friends from my school on WhatsApp(video). We talked after a long long time and it was so fun. Remembering the things we used to do in the school brought back a lot of good memories. It felt so good. It’s a good time to connect to people and share the feelings and show love to them. It can really cheer you up. Browse your contact list and give a call to someone randomly. Simple!

4. Music, movies, games and TV shows.

One of the biggest stress buster for me. I spend a lot of time listening to songs, exploring new genres and artist and believe me if you are a music person it surely makes you happy if you have found a handful of new decent songs.

There is a lot to watch on TV as well. Netflix is reporting a spike in usage time by users. There are a lot of good shows on Netflix. I recently finished Money Heist(Season-4), did not like it much but that’s okay. There are many shows you must watch – Kingdom(Zombie), Altered Carbon, Marriane(Horror), Dark(SciFi) to name a few. I am watching new movies regularly as it keeps me really distracted.

I play PubG regularly. Little PubG break in the day and after dinner relieves me a lot. It’s good that they have set a limit of 3 hours, which I have never hit though. You can try some games these days.

5. Engage yourself in doing random things.

How does your room setup look like? Do you think it would look better if you shift the bed to other corner? Well, try that out and see. Who does not like such changes. It surely gives a nice feeling. How about a dinner date setup? You can enjoy that as well. It’s a good time to engage in bit of gardening. Writing and reading can also help you relax. I am posting more often on my blog and I keep on exploring some blogs to read – it really helps me kill some time. Cooking can be a great thing to do these days. For me it’s a new thing so I am enjoying it a lot. A self-cooked meal can really make you happy even if it not very delicious.

I am trying to make a routine with all the activities I do with a time attached to it. I will try to share it on the blog. Meanwhile, the above mentioned things are really helping me a lot to kill my stress. If you guys have some other cool ideas, please let me know.

COVID19 Realisations – Cooking is fun but can someone do the dishes or chop the vegetables, please?

15th day into lockdown and I have realised cooking is fun and I am liking the kitchen more these days. But there are a lot of things that you need to take care of, which kills the fun somehow and makes it really difficult specially if you are not into habit of cooking. I had never spent a lot of time in the kitchen so this whole experience is a mixed ride – from fun to irritation to fun again, then to a point where I say chuck it I will grab some readymade stuff. I have spent more time in the kitchen in these 15 days than I had ever spent in my whole life. Cooking a good meal is an art and you have to spend a good amount of time to prepare a delicious meal. I never had that much time with me to try cooking.

I will briefly tell you my background. I stayed with my parents for the initial 16 years of my life. For the next 6-7 year I had to move out for higher studies. Then, I got my job in Gurgaon and have been staying here for last 9 years. I was never bothered about the food. There were tiffin services, cooks at different point of time so I never had to learn cooking. I have always a craving of eating good food but sadly I have mostly compromised on that. And now that I have to manage 3 meals a day, for last 15 days, it seems like I am spending the whole time in the kitchen. Cooking is really fun. For people who start learning, they can actually see the transition from shit to a very tasty food and that makes one so happy. But the whole arrangement of things, cleaning the dishes, cleaning the whole mess the new star chef has created make everything very tough. I think most of the newbies would agree on this. Cooking would really be fun when you have someone to help with your mess. Can someone do the dishes or chop the vegetables, please?

Add to it the work from home scenario. Those update calls can really screw up the whole routine. You have to get your breakfast ready before the first morning call. Thankfully, the breakfast is easiest of the three meals. It does not take a lot of time and gives you a good start of the day. Then, there is a call around lunch time, mostly after the lunch. Lunch is really hectic. It takes nearly 1 hour to prepare my lunch – including the dishes, chopping, cooking and then some cleaning again. I finish eating my lunch mostly by 2-2:30pm in the afternoon and by this time I am very exhausted. The evening snacks is around 5.30pm. I like cooking dinner and I have been focusing more on having a delicious dinner everyday. To me cooking lunch sucks. Cooking lunch is such a drag for me and I just do it because it challenges my survival, but cooking dinner is really fun and I never complain about it. I really put my heart in it.

I got to try a lot of things in the kitchen in these 15 days. I have cooked a lot of things – half cooked rice to burnt rice to super oily and super spicy curry to very bland and tasteless curry. Slowly, I perfected few things, got some good idea about the measures and quantities which make me feel good now. I am sure many people around the world would be struggling in the kitchen. The fight for survival teaches you a lot of things and hopefully makes you stronger and wiser. Cooking is not really tough as I always assumed but it does demand you to pour your heart in and it asks for some patience as well. After all, nothing leaves you happier than having a self-cooked delicious meal.