6 Ways To Get Rid of Quarantine Mood
“The world needs huge positive energy to fight against the negative forces. Go to the center of your inner begin and generate that positive energy for the welfare of the humanity.”
― Amit Ray, World Peace: The Voice of a Mountain Bird
Coronavirus hit all of us badly. Except for the countries and their economies, the effect on the individuals who had to stay in quarantine for months was high and those effects seem like it’s not gonna go away easily. Staying at home is a great idea on paper, but when it becomes a reality for months, it becomes boring and psychologically a problem for most of us.
Speaking from myself, my thoughts have changed dramatically. I was an optimist person who was really keen on doing and trying new things in my life both in business and in my personal life but now, this is gone. My ultimate goal is to just go out somehow either with a friend or for something that’d keep my mind off of this situation and my body gets going. Under all these circumstances, I think all of us have to get rid of this mood since the restrictions have started to lift in most of the countries and some of us started to work, some of us will start to go to school in the upcoming semester. It will be tough to wake up every morning at 6 or 7 AM and go to work or school but we have to get back to our routine if we want to get rid of this ridiculous mood. Here are the 6 ways to get rid of this bad mood that affects every part of our life.
1. Think about your life before COVID.
What does this even mean? We all had our lives, routines before the pandemic, and the restrictions. Except for our day-to-day jobs or school, we had our plans, weekly or maybe monthly gatherings with friends or family, and many more things that most of us had, but because of the pandemic, we all forgot about it since we have been in our homes for months. We have to get back to that routine. What were we doing? What ideas we had? What did we plan for our life? Think about these and act now.
If we stop doing what we are supposed to do, we can’t recover from it, just like a factory who stops producing for a couple of months but can’t start producing again and going bankrupt. For example, I have completely forgotten what I was doing before the quarantine since it has been almost 6 months we’ve been into quarantine. My life fell apart, I was living in Budapest but I came back to my home town to be with my family during these hard times, that alone lets you kill all your routine but staying in quarantine for more than 6 months is horribly destructive. Right now, I am trying to remember the world before the coronavirus. I am trying to get in contact with people I couldn’t, trying to do more outdoors. But, it is important to keep in mind that the virus is still there, restrictions easing and we being able to go out doesn’t mean that it is over. Be careful while doing all this.
2. Develop a new routine
Like I mentioned above, we forgot our routines or the routines we have has to be changed since we need to adapt to a world where there are precautions everywhere. Create a new path for you for the post-COVID world and adapt to it. Like they say;
Overcome, adapt, survive.
Implement this to your life and you will see the difference quickly. It will not just let you get on your feet again but also remember your causes and ideas you had before the quarantine period. It is important not to lose our dreams, ideas, and other kinds of things that we wanted to do for our future.
Routine is a big part of our life. I know, living in a routine doesn’t seem like the perfect way to live your life to the fullest but right now, we don’t even have a life. We have to establish a life for us just to begin and then we can move on from there, break the routine and get on to our crazy lives and live to the fullest. It is important to know this. Don’t fool yourself by saying I wasn’t living in a routine before, why should I start doing it now? Well, you HAD a routine before you had a life without routine. Everything starts with that, that is the beginning. Start with that, take your step forward.
Der anfang ist das ende und das ende ist der anfang. - From TV Show “Dark.”
(The beginning is the end and the end is the beginning.)
3. Realize that the world you live in is not the same as before.
I think we all can agree that the world has changed too much and as I have mentioned before, we have to adapt to it and our routines, lifestyles, jobs, hobbies and many more. So every time you see someone with a mask or someone asking you to wear your mask whenever going somewhere, don’t be sad or mad, adapt to it, enjoy it and pretend that this is a new reality. Change yourself according to it.
The world is not the same as it was before.
Every time we go out, every time we go somewhere, we are going to have to carry our masks all the time with us and most of the time, wear it. We are gonna have to be careful about touching our faces all the time when we are not at home or if we haven’t washed our hands. Be extremely careful when you are outdoors. Don’t touch everywhere, if you do, don’t touch your face until you wash your hands. Don’t stay in a closed area for too long. All this is a reality that we need to be careful of. This is the new world that we need to adapt to. Know this.
4. Change Your Short-Term Plans
This might seem a little weird but believe me, there is something worth reading behind it. What I mean by changing your short-term plans is that you should change it to adapt to the coronavirus and its environment. Because most of your plans are not gonna be doable for the next 1–2 years. Being aware of that and adapting not only yourself but also your plans will be a perfect choice to not grab yourself into that quarantine mood again because you’ll have something to do or something to work. It is vital for most of us because a lot of people’s plans have included a lot of things that we won’t be able to do for the next couple of years.
“It’s amazing how a little tomorrow can make up for a whole lot of yesterday.”
― John Guare, Landscape of the Body
It might seem like not something important but think about it. Let’s say that you had a plan of traveling 5 countries in the next 6 months before the coronavirus. But because of the virus, most of the countries don’t let any tourist come in without quarantine or not at all. Postpone this dream for the next year and travel within your own country and see 5 cities or 10 in 6 months. This way, you get to travel and not stay at your home but also your plans will stay intact with a year delay. Instead of canceling it as a whole, you altered it according to the current situation and made something out of it. This is what I am talking about, try to do this with most of your plans that are not doable because of the virus.
5- Spend Time Outdoors As Much As You Can (Safely)
Don’t get me wrong, spend time on your own, or maintain social distancing, and wear your mask while doing it. But we have to get out there sooner or later, so before we go madder than we are now, we should just go out and at least, jog, run or something like this that puts us outdoors and see some people, get some fresh air and maintain our mental health while doing so. Everything that is outdoors counts as a major step for us to go better and get rid of this awful quarantine mood.
“Today you can be inactive, reactive, or proactive! Choose your “active” wisely.”
― Daren Martin
Although, don’t go to crowded places or where you can’t maintain a social distancing. For example, go to a cafe and sit outdoors, on your own or with a friend and just enjoy the time. If you are working as a freelancer or your company is still in the “distance working” scheme, do it in a cafe. Don’t sit at your home. Do sports (I think gyms are still extremely dangerous, so don’t think about that). Be yourself, do more than you did before the quarantine. You have to move and act for a while. You need to be a new you.
6- Enjoy Your Life, Don’t Look Back
“In all of living, have much fun and laughter. Life is to be enjoyed, not just endured.”
― Gordon B. Hinckley
As Gordon Hinckley said once, you need to enjoy it even though the virus is still there, it’s still going to be there next year, too. So, you need to adapt to it and instead of sitting at your home and thinking about how bad the quarantine weeks and months were, you need to enjoy the life we have right now and don’t think about the past. This is how we overcome this. Looking back doesn’t do us any good, it breaks us at one point. So, enjoy it, do whatever you want to do but in a safe way, be more active than before all this. Let your mind solve everything and you help overcome all this. You have to act. Now.
