Three Tips For Staying Sane While Staying At Home

Here we are, still in quarantine.

By now we’ve adjusted to the movement control order. COVID-19 continues to wreak havoc on the world, though here in Malaysia the preventative measures seem to be working. We’re lucky that both our government and the public at large are taking this seriously, doing what needs to be done. That isn’t the case in other parts of the world.

The global economy is taking a nosedive, that’s for sure. Millions of jobs lost and opportunities no longer available, entire industries like tourism massively affected. Scary times ahead. The puzzle pieces of our old lives have been scattered, and it’s harder than ever to predict what the future will look like. 

During these troubled times, practical quarantine advice is all over the internet. How to stick to a routine; to stay connected with friends and family; to relax without wearing a butt-shaped groove into the couch. (Who am I kidding, you’ve probably done that already.) Today I want to talk about how we’re thinking while we’re all stuck indoors. Among the many crises ahead of us, mental health isn’t one to be taken for granted.

Today I’m talking about perspective.

Here are three tips for staying sane while staying at home.

1. Check your expectations.

I daresay most of us want to make this time worthwhile, whether that means focusing on our families, learning new skills, or building the perfect island in Animal Crossing. But it can be hard to escape the nagging feeling that we’re not doing enough. We’re contradictory creatures, humans. We dream about having more free time, yet in excess it becomes overwhelming. What was once an oasis in our busy lives stretches out into an ocean of eternity.

Here’s a reminder that we’re in uncharted waters here. In life and in quarantine, no one knows what they’re doing. Everyone’s trying to keep from going under. Don’t beat yourself up for whatever you haven’t done; focus on what you’re doing right now. Take a deep breath and keep swimming.

2. Anything worth doing is worth doing badly.

I’ve always been in the ‘If it’s worth doing, it’s worth doing well’ camp. But this opposing quote makes a lot of sense. You don’t need to give 110%. Giving 50% (heck, even 20%) is still better than not doing the thing at all. The irony of perfectionism is that this is often what happens. We’re so wrapped up in our desire for things to be exactly the way we want that we become paralyzed by the need for perfection. We burn out before we even begin. Kind of sad, don’t you think?

To put it another way, we must accept doing things badly before we can ever do them well. In a results-oriented world, it can be hard to credit anything less than success. But whether it’s a wonky chord, a messy paragraph, or a loaf of burned bread, our efforts build up over time. We learn through failure.

If you’re working on new skills or long-neglected hobbies during the lockdown, don’t be discouraged by poor results. It’s all part of the process.

3. Reflect on what normality means to you. 

When the quarantine is over and the virus has been defeated, we’ll enter the new normal: a world of grim economic prospects, social distancing, and refraining from shaking people’s hands. It will probably take years to get back to the way things were before. 

But think about whether the old version of normality was working. Were you making enough time for your family? Were you working on personal goals or constantly putting them off for tomorrow? Were you getting enough rest, not just getting sucked into a morass of scrolling social media every night?

Too often in the world, what’s normal is decided by inertia. Now is the time to reflect. Breathe, meditate, journal. What do you want to carry forwards and what deserves to be left behind?  

When we piece the puzzle of our lives back together, it’s up to us to decide how we want the future to look.