Coronavirus & Mental Health: Gratitude, Curiosity & Doing Less Better
[This is PART 3 of a 5-part series exploring mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown period. You can find the other pieces at the end of the article.]
Ask your hands to know the things they hold — Hold Your Own, Kate Tempest
We live complicated lives, strictly structured.
We are partners, siblings, parents, children. We go to work at 8:30am every weekday. We do boxing on a Tuesday. We go for a drink on Friday night with friends. We sleep in on Sunday morning.
With quarantine, our schedule has just taken a u-turn. The restriction of our place has opened up new possibilities of time. The mundane routine of everyday life has been replaced by daily uncertainty and strangeness. Everything that we did by habit before has come into question.
We now have a unique possibility to slow down everything we do. The race of life has become a slow walk.
Stephen Fry said that during this period we have to “redefine our sense of time”. We can take more time to do everything. We can plan our days as we want and take life more day-by-day without strict routine.
To help me, I have roughly adapted my work schedule to suit me staying at home. I found that I am far more productive when I get up early (~6:30am) and go to bed early (~10:00pm). I then have three work slots per day of 2 to 3 hours between 7:00am and 5:00pm, to ensure that I have 2 hours of personal time in the morning to shower, cook a healthy breakfast and do an hour of writing or reading.
Rearranging my schedule has made me more productive at work. I am now more efficient at getting tasks done.
Yet the real benefit for my mental health is that it has allowed me to build pockets of personal time where I can take care of myself throughout the day. In these hours, I put my phone away and rid myself of any distractions.
I allow life to be still. And while, we can learn how to be bored.
Attention & curiosity: learning how to be bored
Boredom is the enemy of modern life. We may never spend a day bored in our lives.
Yet, as many of our best minds have thought, boredom is vital for creativity, reflection, understanding and wisdom, and most of all, self-discovery. When we are bored, we can attend things around us with a new light.
For the first time in my generation, boredom is rife. Even Instagram gets old, when people’s lives are on lock down. People’s lives are slowing down and they are looking around for things to do.
When we slow down without distraction, we suddenly become more aware of our actions. Previously menial tasks can be dissected and observed.
Personally, my greatest discovery has been my attempt to make a cappuccino. Most days, I would buy one from a cafe nearby while at work and the same at the weekend. Not only was it an expensive habit, but the fact that it is a habit of consumption makes it less satisfying. I was a mere onlooker in the cappuccino-making process. I would look on at the barista with a timid wonder, unable to determine what voodoo could make such a perfectly crafted heart in the foam.
With quarantine, I resorted to investing in a small coffee machine with the mission of being able to make one by myself. I watched a few videos online and I am now making three cappuccinos a day! By putting attention towards a new, simple passion, I started to learn the skill behind the crart.
With attentiveness comes curiosity. Something I passively took for granted, I became actively curious about.
Another area is cooking. The restriction on restaurants and cafes has made me cook more curiously. It has taken on new meaning in my daily life. I have explored new ingredients, dishes and spices, paying attention to everything that goes into my mouth. I have also paid attention to how my body reacts to different food groups and am slowly adapting my diet accordingly.
Without pressures from time and people, our curiosities can lead us to be more creative. As there is no pressure to do anything, what we do becomes natural and unforced. We get closer to what we really want and enjoy, rather than what other people have said we should. We inch closer to ourselves.
Everyday gratitude: appreciation of the mundane
With curiosity comes appreciation.
Once we understand how things are and how they come to be in front of us, we can be grateful of them. Suddenly every day things around us become objects of wonder. We can appreciate a kiwi in a supermarket; our toilet with running water and electricity; the old friend that decided to take the time to check in with us.
Similarly, we can rid ourselves of unnecessary items. There has never been such an opportune time to work with the wisdom of Marie Kondo.
Because we are rarely leaving our homes, our belongings take on additional meaning. We can use quarantine to embrace a more minimalist ideology, and declutter our living space. We can bring it more inline with our values and our sense of self.
Paradoxically, by being able to see less of life, we can become more alive; by waking up into a surreal existence, we can start to feel more real.
We become more present to the world around us. And when we are aware of those around us and grateful for them, we have fruitful ground to form stronger connections with those around us.
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To continue with the story, find the other parts below:
👉 Part 1: Fear, Loneliness & The Silver Linings of Quarantine
👉 Part 2: Free Time, Love & Becoming Our Own Best Friend
👉 Part 4: Emotional Intelligence, Empathy & Practicing Openness
👉 Conclusion: Uncertainty, Strength & Holding Our Own
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