Jan 16, 2022 3 min read Selfdevelopment

3 Things I've Learnt from COVID Isolation

Who would've thought that COVID-19 would still be here after two years. It has completely changed the way we work, our interactions with others and our mindset when it comes to hygiene. I was fortunate enough to have avoided getting COVID-19 up until early this year. I definitely did not expect to start the new year isolating but it wasn't all so bad because I had amazing friends and family who were supporting me throughout the isolation.

It's easy to get bogged down from the negative sides of isolating like not being able to go out, being confined in a small space and unable to do the basic things we normally do. So I've tried to find the silver lining to all of this and here are my top 3 things that I've learnt from this whole COVID isolation period and how you could also implement it as well to get through it.

Mental Shutdown

We all get quite caught up in our lives that we forget to appreciate what it's like to just have time off. Always being on the move and needing to keep busy definitely has it's downsides. It's one of the reasons why a lot of us tend to move to quieter cities as we try to escape the rush.

This didn't quite occur to me until 2 days into isolation. The first two days was amazing as I was able to have time to just relax, watch Netflix and catch up on all the movies that I've put off watching due to not having enough time. But there comes to a point where there's actually TOO much Netflix and you run out of things to watch. This was when it hit me, "what the hell do I do with all this time?"

I'm someone who always needs to be productive with my time and hated the fact that my time wasn't being used efficiently or effectively. I never understood the concept of "taking a mental break" until just recently. I never thought that i'll say this but being able to take time to just STOP and THINK is actually more efficient than always trying to do something. Just being alone with my thoughts allowed me to reflect on all aspects of life and try to understand where I could improve. I guess that's why people mediate?

Becoming More Creative

When you're stuck in a room for 7 days, you really start to miss out on the daily activities that you normally get to do. For me, it was not being able to go out to go for a run, play sports, go to the gym or walk my dog. So I had to get creative with what I had in the room.

Out of all of them, not being able to exercise or go to the gym was the biggest change for me. I didn't have any weights in my room so I decided to make my own. I used a duffle bag and put books, laptops, anything that was heavy into it and used it as dumbbells. I started getting into calisthenics to ensure that I wouldn't lose my strength. I would even use my bed as "bench" to do tricep dips and decline push ups. Literally anything that I could find, I would try to turn it into something that I could use for a workout.

Routine and Habits

During isolation, you start to lose track of what day it is and things become monotonous. Your routine becomes, sleep, eat, breaks in between meals then back to sleep. For me, I quite enjoyed being able to have a set routine and schedule everyday. It allowed for me to actually plan my time and make the most of it.

I would split the day into 3 time blocks, each of them being after each meal. So I'd have a time block between breakfast and lunch, lunch and dinner, and finally after dinner and before bed. I'd used my diary to write down what I would want to achieve in these time blocks and do my best to stick to it. I found that this was the best way to develop a new habit. I was able to develop a habit of reading regularly and start to tick off my new year goals.

I think that a lot of us view isolation as a negative thing when in actual fact, it's all about your perspective and how you frame it. I had a negative mindset coming into isolation as it made me postpone a lot of my events, but I definitely came out of it with a different mindset. I found that, you can either just sit there and sulk about what has happened, or actually take it into your hands and gain control over your life and still get things done. It all depends on how you view things and how you react to it.