-Nadashree M.K.
Each of us is in the fight against the pandemic and people are trying their best to keep up their day to day life. While some people find it easy to stay at their homes during the lockdown, others struggle to cope up with the situation. If you are feeling low during this difficult time, don’t worry. We got you. Here are some tips to efficiently handle the lockdown.
Let’s Go Farming
Since last year’s lockdown, more people have taken up farming at their houses. Working and retired professionals, even students started kitchen or garden farming. Due to fear of shortage of groceries, people started to rely more on vegetables produced from their gardens. People started to convert wastelands and their kitchen gardens to produce fresh vegetables. The best part of this farming is that most of them practice organic farming. By using little chemical fertilizers and more kitchen wastes, people are adopting eco-friendly farming techniques. Moreover, some governments are giving support to urban farming by giving away free seeds, fertilizers, and advises for effective small-scale farming. It is not only about producing chemical-free vegetables but also making a self-reliant society. Aside from organic or urban framing, people have also started gardening, animal husbandry, poultry, pisciculture and a lot more!
Spread Your Word
Since the pandemic, people started to search for uplifting, positive contents on YouTube and other online platforms. People stay updated through online news channels and contents on things happening around the globe. During this difficult time, people search for fresh content to keep them stable. You can kick off your own YouTube channel to discuss various topics ranging from books and product reviewing, to beauty and fitness tips, making song and dance covers and so forth. If you are a Gordon Ramsay (or in making!) it’s time to show your culinary skills to the world. Journaling is considered one of the best ways of stress management as it helps you to learn more from your experiences and by understanding your fears (Dee, 2020). Many people started journaling to deal with the stress and anxiety they feel while staying home. It is productive, simple, creative, moreover enjoyable (Allan, 2020). Your journal could be a historical record of things that you witnessed around you. Let’s grow inside out through journaling.
Stay Positive Through Hobbies
Exhausted from scrolling through Netflix or your Instagram feed? Remember that book you bought last summer but couldn’t start reading. Well, it’s time to take it out from your shelf and flip the pages! Most of us had to leave behind our hobbies due to our busy work or academic schedules. Lockdown has given us time to do the things we love and stay positive. Hobbies help us by diverting from our worries, get a new perspective and boost our self-confidence (Turns, 2020). People turned hobbies like painting, crafting, knitting, baking into small businesses too. YouTube provides various fitness channels to keep your body and mind healthy. Also, there are online book clubs where you could join talks and discussions on the books you are reading or wish to read. So bibliophiles, assemble! If you are a movie bluff, you can expand your horizon by exploring wonderful foreign language movies and web series which are available online.
Enhance Your Learning
Students and young graduates are stressed about their further studies and employment. It is true that the pandemic greatly impacted the job markets. But it is no time to pressure yourself about your future. Take this as a perfect opportunity to push your boundaries and learn more. Many companies are providing remote internship opportunities to students and freshers to gain work experience so that they could get the upper hand during the job hunt. Paid or unpaid, internships are one of the best ways to develop your skills and learning through practical work experience. Don’t forget to make connections and build relationships, which is crucial in your professional development. Through working, you can also learn new skills, both soft and hard skills which could make an impact. Likewise, many leading universities provide a wide range of free online courses through websites such as Coursera, Udemy, Alison and others. You can choose your area of interest from the courses provided and improve learning from basic understanding of concepts to advanced level. If you want to learn a new language, this is the right time. With so many online sources it is now easy to learn as many languages at any time. While learning new things, it is also important to stay up to date on local, national and international affairs, which would help you to have better perception on themes for instance, politics, economy, history, climate change and other fresh topics.
5. Health is Wealth
Good mental and physical health is essential to fight the pandemic. Along with regular exercises, don’t forget to include fresh fruits and vegetables in our diet and eat mindfully. Avoid junk food and stick to home cooked meals. Limit the intake of fat and sugar and include more fibre based food that would help you to feel mindful and prevent overeating (World Health Organization, n.d.). And stay hydrated! While taking care of ourselves, don’t forget to lend your hand to the needy. Plasma donors are very much needed at this difficult time. Plasma, a yellowish part of our blood is separated and used for treating COVID-19 affected patients (COVID-19: Who can be a plasma donor? Know all details here, 2021). Blood of the recovered patients, which contains virus fighting-antibodies, is used for plasma therapy (COVID-19: Once Recovered, How You Can Donate Plasma And Save Lives, 2021). Any healthy person aged between 18-60 is eligible for donating plasma. Let us be a part of a good cause!
Don’t let anything steal your vibe. Stay positive. We got this!