MAINTAINING YOUR SANITY THROUGH THE COVID-19 LOCKDOWN
We all realize how important it is to combat the stress, grief and loneliness during the current Coronavirus pandemic. This post is not intended to minimize the human and financial devastation caused by Covid-19 but rather to offer some helpful hints for keeping our spirits high, staying healthy and finding constructive ways to help.
Here we are in week three of having our daily lives upended with our New York “pause.” Many of us are looking for novel ways to occupy our time while adhering to social distancing and self-confinement.
But, let’s start at the beginning. When I wake up, my morning routine consists of a conversation with Alexa to hear the weather, then CNN news as I quickly make the bed and dress for morning exercise. Unless you instruct Alexa to turn off the news, CNN will continue broadcasting their normal programming. That is how I managed to catch Dr. Sanjay Gupta’s April 4th “Coronavirus: Fact Versus Fiction” podcast. His guest was Astronaut Scott Kelly who discussed how to survive isolation.
SURVIVING ISOLATION LIKE AN ASTRONAUT
Kelly sees his family as crew mates who work and play within a restricted area, not dissimilar to being within the confines of a spaceship. Here are some of the practical tips Kelly offered for surviving during the Coronavirus pandemic:
1. Have a routine. It makes the day go faster.
2. Include a variety of activities.
3. Exercise to stay fit and to avoid suppressing your immune system.
4. Pace yourself during the day.
5. Have a hobby.
6. Listen to music as it reduces stress.
7. Use the time you have now to connect or reconnect with family and friends.
8. Take advantage of technology to do this.
9. Focus on what you can control and put aside what you can’t.
10. Develop a different mindset understanding that this will be over someday.
MIX IT UP
As Kelly suggested, having a variety of activities to accomplish distracts you from the long days at home. I tend to mix up meaningful tasks with self-indulging projects. After I complete the serious things—answering emails and texts,handling some business, reading the NYTimes and doing PT for my bad knees—I allow myself to play. This might mean working on the TarteTatinTales blog, watching one of the Met’s live streamed operas, making biscotti or trying out a new beauty mask. There’s also more time than I’d like to admit of television gazing between a daily dose of Governor Cuomo’s morning press briefing and then later my cocktails with Judy Woodruff on PBS “Newshour.”
Here are just a few suggestions from friends and family on how to while away the time as we continue our Covid-19 countdown to freedom.
TEACHING SOMEONE A SECOND LANGUAGE
My sister-in-law, MaryAnn Lauber, told me that “As so many of my normal activities are cancelled, I have plenty of time to help someone who is learning English as a second language. This experience is giving me great satisfaction.” While MaryAnn was used to doing this face-to-face with her young Vietnamese student, now she must rely on the Internet for their various language exercises.
SCAVENGER HUNT FOR KIDS
As a former elementary school teacher, MaryAnn delighted in telling me about a unique way for parents to handle their children’s mash-up of youthful energy and anxiety. It’s called “The Teddy Bear Hunt.” This is where neighbors put stuffed teddy bears in the widows of their homes so that when kids go on walks or drives with their parents, they can count the bears. Ironically, the following day the NYTimes ran an article about the popularity of this passtime which is being played out not just across our nation but around the world! The NYTimes called it “a scavenger hunt suited to social distancing.” According to the article, the game was inspired by a 1989 children’s book, “We’re going on a bear hunt,” by British author Michael Rosen.
My eleven-year-old great niece, Tilly Boss, is taking this game of teddy bear sighting seriously. Not only does she change the staging of her own teddy bear, but she also incorporates different special affects as seen in the photo used for this post. When I asked Tilly why she was doing this, she replied enthusiastically, “I wanted to do the teddy bear hunt because it sounded fun and got me out of the house. It made me feel good, too, to know that other kids are having fun finding my teddy bear.”
EATING AS A DISTRACTION
Under lockdown, many people are resorting to food as a way to minimize their stress and boredom. Erica Lebensberg, Special Events Manager at CancerCare, divulged “I’m eating. Lots. And all the wrong things. And I care not!!!” Erica even went so far as to suggest that she needs a padlock for her frig. Naturally, I sent her last week’s post on dieting in the hopes that it might offer some inspiration. But I tend to doubt it as Erica is more of the “diet be damned” kind of person.
FOOD TO THE RESCUE
Many of us have taken to our kitchens now that we have so much time on our hands. We are cooking up comfort food to sooth our souls. People are baking like crazy causing shortages of yeast and sugar in supermarkets. Uber baker Eleanor Sigona created one of her famous coffee cakes to thank her neighbor who gave her two surgical masks when she couldn’t find any locally. I’ve been cooking and sharing things with older neighbors as well as our building’s staff as a small token of thanks for keeping us safe.
If you enjoy cooking and your friends know it, more than likely you, too, will be tapped to join the Quarantine Cooking Recipe Exchange. This functions similarly to a chain letter where you are promised to receive a collection of homey recipes such as a two-ingredient pizza dough, healthy muffins and one-dish Catalan fish stew, a sinfully delicious and easy recipe from Mia Malm. In this world of social distancing, it’s a fun way to gather ideas for experimenting in the kitchen.
TAKING ON PROJECTS YOU’VE AVOIDED
With so much unscheduled time, some people are making headways with dreary projects we naturally avoid. Many of my friends have thrown themselves into spring cleaning. People are polishing silverware and copper pots, washing windows and cleaning closets with abandon. But urban architect Doug Balder, has outdone us all. He repainted his entire apartment. A real super-husband, Doug also found time to make his wife, Joan, bone broth. Go ahead ladies. Be envious!
I took the opportunity to write a “What If” document for the executors of my will. Given the morbidity of this task, I channeled Martha Stewart who claims you can make any nasty activity palatable by adding a fun component. While it may appear a bit of a stretch, I’ve decided to turn this exercise into a scavenger hunt by affixing colorful Post-Its to boxes, files and secret hiding spots to serve as clues to finding various important items.
MAKING LEMONADE OUT OF LEMONS
Joan De Collibus, wife of super-husband Doug and herself a canine fashion designer, recently told me her business has dried up. Instead of lamenting this situation, she’s shifted her artistic talents to producing Covid-19-related greeting cards with whimsical drawings and witty messages. She anticipates that people will welcome having a card to send friends and loved ones in this time when social distancing precludes normal physical interaction. With her creative juices flowing at full speed, she has also decided to submit some of her cartoons to The New Yorker!
REJIGGERING YOUR LIFE
My late husband’s granddaughter, Nicole Lauber and her fiancé Ben live in Florida. “All in all, things haven’t really changed for us that much. The biggest change is that Ben is working from home and of course, that we’re social distancing. We’ve also played board games with friends via Google Hangouts, and have virtual happy hours to catch up with everyone. We’re cooking almost every meal, I’m baking too many cookies, and Ben is experimenting with craft cocktails. I’ve also been devouring books I’ve had on my bookshelf for months (maybe years?) and am reading close to a book every week.”
STAY WITHIN THE LINES!
Adult coloring books are popular as well these days as a fun way to destress. Top New York publicist Chandni Patel finds comfort in doing puzzles. Not your normal ones, though, but “two thousand pieces of torture” which she spreads out all over the living room floor. As she and her husband are working at home, this substantially limits the mobility in their small New York City apartment. According to Chandni, it’s a “motivation to finish it which I guess might take me another month.” In addition to the giant jigsaw puzzle, she continued, “I’m limiting news to the beginning and end of the day as much as I can, limiting alcohol because it does ratchet up my anxiety - so only drinking when there is a video chat with folks to help curb it.”
ZOOMING AS THE NEW WAY OF LIFE
Melanie Young, co-host of the radio show, “The Connected Table Live” on iHeartRadio, agrees that it’s important to stay connected with family and friends. She stated on her blog that participating in a virtual happy hour is “a great way to see people and enjoy a conversation when you can’t be together in person. I think about all my friends overseas and across the country who I usually chat with by What’s App or phone. Use Zoom and you virtually chat over lunch, drinks or dinner and visit with family and friends around the world. It’s the next best thing to being there in person and it’s better than eating and drinking alone.” Follow Melanie on www.melanieyoung.com #theconnectedtable
TALKING UNTIL YOU’RE TALKED OUT
Eleanor Sigona said that on Sunday she received ten phone calls which ate up her entire day. Finally, when the 11th one came in—a call from a neighbor who is stranded in Germany—she handed the receiver to her husband and said, “Bruce, you speak to Windy. I’m all talked out!” And, Eleanor’s right. In addition to Zoom and other on-line meetups, people are chatting excessively with their friends, family and colleagues. We are all concerned about each other and want to make sure we are safe from the virus. So, my advice is to get used to talking more than usual. Plus, don’t forget to pick up the phone to check-in with your older friends and neighbors to see if you can be of any assistance.
THE IMPORTANCE OF STAYING HEALTHY
As Astronaut Kelly advised, we need to stay healthy with some form of exercise during our self-isolation. With all the gyms and many parks closed, there are alternative options to consider. YouTube has more free workout videos than you can shake a stick at. Many trainers offer on-line sessions live on Instagram. For people who exercise frequently there is a need for at least one hour every day, prefereably outdoors, for running, walking or cycling. A friend of mine who is a marathoner in constant training, explained the other day that exercise is critical to her physical as well as mental health. She told me “I notice a difference in my mind set when I don’t exercise, too.”
TREAT YOURSELF WELL
Fellow blogger, Cynthia Sin-Yi Cheng—who goes by the name “Ms. Bond”—is caught in Paris during the Coronavirus lockdown. At the beginning, she said off-handedly that it wasn’t so bad. As Ms. Bond recounted, even with the restaurants closed, she had a rich selection of food purveyors where she could find all sorts of French deliciousness. According to Ms. Bond, “Even though we are in confinement, considering all things, I really feel that the Parisians have maintained a very sane and civilized lifestyle...we still get to walk and exercise outdoors (although, the new tightened rule this week has shorten ‘jogging time’ from before 10AM and after 7pm). The general ambiance is quite zen...Parisians out doing their grocery shopping are polite and in good humor. Vendors still tease and joke with their regular clients. I really appreciate this very human aspect of living here during this time of duress.”
Ms. Bond is reporting weekly from Paris. (Sign up for her THAT MS. BOND newsletter via msbond@thatmsbond.com and get weekly reports.) To read her thoughtful tips on keeping your spirits up during the isolation, check out this week’s “Appetizer” section of www.TarteTatinTales.com.
Expressing Gratitude and Hope
Ms Bond also explained that “In France every night at 8PM everyone opens their windows or stand on their balconies and cheers in unison for the medical staff who are saving the world right now!” These organized clapping sessions to express gratitude for health care workers occurring around the world is trending at #clapbecausewecare.
In New York City, we do the same but at 7 PM. As eloquently described in David Remnick’s April 13th issue of The New Yorker “Joy comes at seven. (Or is it sheer catharsis?) Every evening, in many neighborhoods across the city, cheering breaks out, the way it would when the Yankees clinched another World Series title. It spills from the stoops and the sidewalk, from apartment windows and rooftops, for all the nurses, the orderlies, doctors, E.M.T.s—everyone who cannot shelter in place and continues to go about healing the people in the city.”
So, wherever you are tonight, join me for a rousing applause for the people keeping us safe. While the experience of clapping cannot replenish the sorely lacking medical equipment they need, it unites us all though an act of solidarity. All around the world, people are expressing their communal hope for a safer future and return to normalcy knowing in our hearts that our lives will be changed forever.