It blows my mind that this is my eighth week in quarantine now; this is our new normal! And for some reason, it does feel normal! It took me awhile, but I figured out my schedule and I am feeling so much better now. It turns out, waking up early, exercising, and drinking water is good for you.
But besides these healthy habits, I’ve taken up some new hobbies during quarantine as well! I started making sourdough bread with my own self-grown sourdough starter (her name is Sally the Sourdough Starter if you were wondering)! It’s actually really easy to grow a sourdough starter! It’s just flour, water, and a whole lotta patience. I’ve baked two loaves so far and they were fluffy!
Also, can I give a quick shout out to coloring books? I never thought I’d be saying this at 18, but I seriously love coloring books. I am not an artist in the slightest, but coloring in pretty designs and pictures is so soothing! I’ve really been enjoying coloring for a few minutes and listening to soft music before bed.
But I must say, the main thing that’s turned my quarantine around is turning off the news.
I stopped following news sites like CNN and MSNBC, as well as Buzzfeed the past few weeks. And as an active political junkie, this was hard. But I realized that it wasn’t healthy for me to be reading so much negative news all day long. Hearing about the state of the world just stressed me out even more. I know it’s important to stay informed, but for right now, I’m taking the time to simply get my school work done, take care of myself, and spend time with my family. The news can wait. And if I’m really dying to know what’s going on, Vox is usually pretty straightforward and less gruesome.
For me, getting involved in new fun activities, and tuning out the outside world has made my quarantine so much better! But the truth is, everyone is reacting to this weirdness in their own way. Some extroverts are having a really hard time. Some introverts are loving it. For me, I’m somewhere in the middle. So I’ve realized, my job is to check-in with myself on a weekly basis, to make sure I’m taking care of myself, feeling good, and not getting too bogged down by, ya know, the global pandemic we’re living through right now.
A self check-in can be anything you want it to be. For me, I like to write in my journal late at night and reflect about how my week’s been going. Or, I’ll wake up early and go on a longer run and process everything going through my mind. I think about what’s making me happy right now, and how I can improve on different aspects of my life. It was during these times by myself that I was able to realize that I needed to find more fun things to do, and that I needed to turn off the news.
