When making my concept board I wanted to be think of productive ways I could be spending the time that we will be social distancing. There are so many ways you can be productive, but personally I wanted to envision things that I can be consistent with while also enjoying myself.
I decided to focus on three main subjects when making my vision board which were activities that are beneficial for my health/self-care, ways to stay connected socially, and activities I can do for fun.
When thinking of activities that were beneficial to my health I first started to think of activities I haven’t had as much time do. This started with working out, while on campus I’d play pick-up basketball every now and then, but I never found myself going to the gym on a regular basis. Since all gyms have been closed due to the pandemic, I decided to try out in house workouts. I was amazed at how many ways I can exercise with stuff around the house. Building off of that I’ve also prioritized eating healthy and making sure I’m getting the right nutrients each day. Sometimes I find myself unintentionally going hours without a meal and one way I’m changing that is setting a time to have each necessary meal and eating snacks throughout the day as well. This will help me get into the habit of having a strict regimen which will be key if I’m working out daily as well. Prioritizing sleep has been a focus as well given I wasn’t getting the necessary amount while on campus. Although there isn’t a place I need to be daily, I found that sleeping consistently and getting the right amount of hours really helps with having more energy throughout the day.
When thinking of activities to stay connected with my social life, I found myself using video-chat a lot more than I ever did. My friends and I have started to use Facetime, Zoom, and even Netflix extensions to stay in touch given we can’t see each other. It’s weird that even though we’re all in such close proximity of each other that we can’t see each other, but we’ve embraced the options that I’ve mentioned earlier. One cool thing about Zoom is that we can do a share screen and watch movies together which I really enjoy. In addition, we’ve created shared playlists where we add music we’ve found during quarantine.
Activities that I thought of when thinking about stuff to do for fun was easy, but it came with self reflection. I was writing some of these down which included drawing, reading, and listening music when I realized that this time period will provide me the most time to engage in such activities. With that being said I wanted to make the most of this time and really enjoy what makes me happy. I’ve began using my laptop to read online books which was something I didn’t do as much at school since we had the library. In addition, I found old art supplies in my room which I’ve used to create paintings and drawings. One thing that arose from this was the idea that I want to renovate my old shed. It was something I planned on doing this summer but now I have a lot more time to dedicate to it.
Lastly, the main thing that I want to be prioritizing is mental health. While this pandemic has affected so many aspects of life in different ways it’s important to take the necessary actions to take care of yourself. We don’t know how long we’ll be social distancing so developing good habits now can lead to positive results down the road.