The world is undergoing a crisis it has not seen before and for the time being, much of the world’s population is under lockdown while the spread of the virus is contained and slowed. For some people, this may be no different than their regular day-to-day routine, just with fewer trips out to the shop. For many, however, this is a huge upheaval to their daily lives and are finding it difficult to cope with being stuck at home.
Fortunately, you don’t have to be outside to guarantee a lighter mood, although daylight does help so make sure to throw your curtains wide open in the morning and soak in that all-important vitamin D. We have offered some inspiration for how to keep yours and your family’s spirits high during the foreseeable future while we are asked to stay home as much as possible.
Contributing To Those Worse Off
Growing up it wasn’t unusual to hear ‘just think how good you have it’ from our parents when faced with a dinner we didn’t like the look of or wanting to play outside for a bit longer. In the current climate, this stands more than ever and though we may be stuck in our homes, many of us are in developed countries with free access to entertainment such as TV and the internet. For many impoverished countries, people already live almost on top of each other with nothing at home to keep them engaged or entertained at this time and must rely on charity and Zakat to get by.
These people would normally engage with the communities around them but with more requests for self-isolation and self-distancing, this is becoming more difficult and many families will now be feeling the strain, especially in countries like Syria, where tension and conflict already run high.
Although it is a time of economic stability, many of us have been lucky enough to keep our jobs and begin working from home and all charitable contributions that can be made in this time of need will be gratefully received more than ever.
Learning a New Skill
For those that have reduced hours or are facing the unfortunate loss of their job, now could be the best time to learn or develop a new skill. With access to a variety of different learning tools, online video tutorials and entire websites dedicated to learning new skills such as Brilliant and Skillshare, you could choose one or two skills you’ve always wanted to learn or learn an entirely new set of skills that open up opportunities for a new career once the masses are allowed to return to work.
YouTube is another fantastic resource that is completely free to use and offers a huge catalog of tutorials, learning videos and step-by-step video guides for creating and building.
Start a Weekly Chat Session with Friends and Family
Just because we have been asked to remain at home, doesn’t mean we are cut off from our friends and family. The internet has enabled us to keep in contact even over hundreds and thousands of miles with little interference resulting in quality online conversations that can almost seem like the person is in the room with you. While you can’t pop round for a cup of tea freely anymore, we can arrange weekly video catch-ups with our nearest and dearest. Chat clients like Discord offer private voice chat rooms with up to 50 connections, ensuring the whole family can get involved and with screen share facility, even play games together!
Why not arrange a video chat and discuss ways you can help others in your local or neighboring areas, whether it’s looking out for the elderly or vulnerable or doing something to raise some charity for those less fortunate? Or you can all learn to play a different instrument with a goal to come together in a few weeks and play a piece of music together? The possibilities are endless and the only true limit is your creativity and imagination.
Things in China are starting to turn around but we cannot say for sure when the lockdown and request to stay indoors will truly be over so rather than mope on the sofa, make the most of this opportunity for spare time, whether it’s gaining time back from a commute or reduction in working hours. You don’t want to regret wasting these few weeks once the world returns to normal and we begin to feel stretched again.
