The automatic door split open as I stepped outside. Breathing in the cold crisp air, I felt the remnant of Toronto’s winter linger as the wind gusted through my trembling body. I needed some time to get used to the outdoor again after three days lounging in my apartment. I needed to take a walk and buy that buckwheat flour and chocolate for my baking project. No loitering on the street. No aimless stroll.
Many things have changed just over a week. When the call for social distancing just started, I thought it would last for a few weeks. Otherwise, how is the economy going to sustain? How are people going to make a living? However, when each day came with a new piece of information, one more menacing than the last, it dawned on me that I needed to prepare for a new normal. We are expected to expect that the future is going to be difficult and there is nothing much we can do about it, except for keeping ourselves safe while staying apart from each other.
I’m worried about my future, but at the same time I know many are suffering from worse than I am. I think about the minimum-wage workers who do not have the luxury of a permanent home or savings to bank on. I think about the café where I work and other independent food business owners who close their doors, weighed by the struggle to cover rent and utilities. I think about my own sister who is forced to take unpaid leave. The tourism and hospitality industry is the hardest-hit since the outbreak started.
Overwhelmed by a million thoughts in my head, I sit by the window and write.
Despite living in a studio apartment, I never feel confined, thanks to the large window that turns my view of the city into some sort of an entertaining spectacle. Higher up, the clouds cluster. At times they look ominous, but once the darkness passes to reveal the sun patiently waiting behind, I feel re-energized. It feels great to be basking in the warmth of the sun. It feels great to watch the little rays maneuvering among the building and window frames, drawing intersecting strokes on the floor and the wall to create a piece of abstract art that mesmerizes us with its simplicity, and for lack of a better word, natural-ness.
Looking down on the street, I also find pleasure in observing people, making up stories from how they stroll, limp, run, walk or fidget at the traffic lights. Definitely there are fewer people now than there were two weeks ago, but still everyone carries on with their lives, albeit with a touch of anxiety and a lot more precautions. I smile as an old couple slowly makes their way on the empty pavement, hand in hand. I chuckle as a little girl suddenly sprints, giving her father a hard time to catch up.
These are the sights that keep me sane, being connected to people while apart from them. But social-distancing or not, I have always found solace by the window, where I can write uninterruptedly, and thus working at home fulfilling. What if you don’t have a big window, or maybe yours opens to a deserted garden or an empty street? Here are what I hope will work when home-bound:
1) Dedicate time for exercise: As much a cliché as it is, exercising does help, and I can’t stress it enough. Scientifically, exercise increases the level of endorphin, a chemical in your body responsible for relieving stress and pain. Mentally, exercise gives you a sense of accomplishment. Won’t you feel happy when you finally complete a set of HIIT or achieve that headstand?
2) Vary your work location: Don’t keep sitting at the same desk burying yourself in the pile of emails and lamenting over the lack of productivity or ‘work’ mood. Switch it up, move to the living room, the dining room or move your desk. If I can find variation in my tiny studio apartment, you can too.
3) Take frequent breaks: Regardless of where you work, taking frequent breaks is proven to help increase productivity. So set a target and outline the smaller associated tasks, take five when you complete one smaller task and fifteen after the target is achieved. Move around in your break: rinse those beans, peel that carrot, put that pot of soup on the stove. These keep your body active and make the day less tiring.
4) Engage yourself in a side project: This could be accomplishing that headstand, finishing that novel one page at a time or creating a whole new dish with whatever you have in the pantry. For me, I started baking with ingredients I have never used before (hence the need for buckwheat!), while keeping in mind not to use too many essential items that many people might need (like eggs and milk). I even tinkered with a whole-wheat muffin recipe and create a savory option out of the batter.
5) Create a virtual hangout space: Much as I enjoy being alone, I acknowledge that humans are herd-minded species. Even the presence of one person, without interaction, could make us feel better. So if you live alone, find some other colleagues or friends in the same time zone and start working together. It’s fine if you don’t want to turn on the video, just hearing each other move and breathe is good enough.
I think these help a lot in coping with this so-called social isolation period. Nevertheless, isolation gives it such a bad rep, don’t you think? Maybe we should stop calling it isolation, but something more positive, like mindful solitude, by the window observing people without revealing yourself or in front of the screen watching your friends flunking a chicken roast. The choice is yours to make.
