How to be Optimistic When You Have COVID-19 at Home

For those of us hit by the effects of the pandemic, things haven’t exactly been rosy. We’ve faced quarantines, lockdowns, self-isolation orders and mask mandates, with social distancing measures to boot. Stuck at home, we were forced to entirely restructure our home lives in order to maintain a mere semblance of normalcy. 

Of all those who were quarantined, those who had contracted COVID-19 were affected the worst. As if the unpleasantness of being isolated and alone wasn’t enough, these poor souls had to face their trial while dealing with the symptoms of the virus. Coughing, headaches, a lack of taste and many other unpleasant symptoms were the order of the day, until the symptoms faded. 

But what if you are in this situation? Stuck at home alone, you may feel like you’re sinking into a pit of depression and lethargy, unable to differentiate one day from the next. You’re probably wondering: “how can I get out of this funk?” If you’ve come here looking for an answer to this question, you’ve come to the right place; we’ve got some ideas we think might help! 

Meditation 

While it’s often written off as overly spiritual humdrum, meditation can actually be a tremendously useful tool when fighting depression, anxiety and stress at home. Regardless whether or not you are spiritually inclined, meditation can help calm your mind, ease the strain on your body and relieve built up tension and anxiety. 

Although it’s often misconstrued as a highly mystic exercise, the act of meditating is actually quite simple in practice. In order to meditate, all you need to do is find a quiet, serene place in your home, take a seat on the floor (or a yoga mat, if you want something a bit more comfortable) and focus on your breathing. Close your eyes and try to clear your mind of intrusive thoughts, while you breathe in and out deeply. 

For those who embrace spirituality, there are further dimensions of meditation that can be explored, but for the purposes of stress relief the practice as it is outlined here is entirely sufficient. There are a number of academic studies that confirm the mental and physical benefits of meditation; why not give it a try? 

If you find that you enjoy meditating and it helps relieve some of the stress, you might want to take the next step and create a meditation spot in your home. This doesn’t have to be elaborate or expensive; all you need to do is find a quiet place where you feel safe and at peace. For a bit of added flair, try strategically adding small items of furniture or decor that fit the color palate you’re going for. 

Renovation 

If you’re stuck at home with COVID-19 but are fortunate enough to have symptoms that are less severe, you might gain some peace of mind and some aesthetic or functional improvements to your home by doing a bit of renovation. This has the potential to take your mind off of your unpleasant circumstances and allow you to learn a new skill or two. 

A common misconception about renovation is that it requires a great deal of skill and experience. This couldn’t be further from the truth; there are dozens of renovations that can be done cheaply and easily with nothing more than an online order from the hardware store and a youtube tutorial or two. Before you know it, your home might look like a completely different place! 

There are dozens of ways in which you can make improvements to your home; you could replace some of the light fixtures, or you could repaint a room or two. If you’re willing to take things a bit further, you could refloor a room, or even remove a wall to open up some new space! Whatever you decide to change, you won’t regret making some renovations! 

Your additions might not be perfect when you first start experimenting with interior renovations. In all likelihood, mistakes will be made, and those mistakes are likely to stick around until you learn enough to fix them. This is ok! These little mistakes will add character to your home, provide you with some amusing conversation starters and much more! 

Exercise 

Another thing that can really help get your mind off the drab monotony of a COVID-19 quarantine is a good home exercise regimen. While it might be a bit daunting at first,establishing a consistent exercise plan and sticking to it can be immensely rewarding, as you develop your body, mind and mental outlook on life. 

As you probably already know, working out releases endorphins into the bloodstream that are closely associated with good moods, providing you with an instant boost to your emotional state. What’s more, the more you work out, the better shape you’ll get into, thereby improving your health and by proxy your outlook and mood. 

Exercising at home is actually easier than you might think. You don’t need an expensive set of equipment, even though these home gym sets can certainly have their uses. If you want to start exercising at home, all you’ll need to do is get a workout mat, a water bottle (a cup will do the trick as well if you don’t have a bottle) and set some challenging but achievable goals. 

It’s important not to be overly ambitious when it comes to setting your workout goals. While it may seem like a good idea to work towards being able to do 100 pushups in a set by the end of the month, these kinds of goals are very likely to result in you burning out and giving up. Instead, set small goals that are achievable, but still present something of a challenge. 

Diet 

For the last entry on this list, we’re going to focus on something very important: diet. Eating right is a crucial part of maintaining a healthy state of mind, and it’s also one of the things most easily neglected by people in quarantine. When delivery services can have fast food at your door in minutes, it’s easy to cave to the habit of ordering out, but this will lead to a plethora of undesirable consequences. 

If you want to improve your diet, you’re going to need to start cooking healthy food at home. Of course, healthy is a relative term, and most home cooked meals are healthier than those you’ll find at fast food restaurants, so your meals don’t have to be spartan rations or anything like that. Just try to focus on cooking meals that are nutritious and tasty; it’ll save you money and improve your health! 

Don’t know how to cook? That’s ok! With a little help from YouTube, cooking blogs, recipe databases and the dozens of online resources available to use for free, it’s easy to educate yourself in the culinary arts. Once you start looking, you’ll be surprised at just how easy some of the most delicious recipes are to make! 

Once you start cooking, it’s hard to stop. There are a lot of ways to improve your skills, but a good place to start is by purchasing some decent cooking utensils. It won’t make you any better of a chef, but it will make the process of cooking a lot easier, saving you guesswork, wasted ingredients and unnecessary headaches. 

Conclusion

There’s no easy way to say it; being stuck alone at home with COVID-19 is not an ideal situation. It’s lonely, irritating and unpleasant. Hopefully we’ve given you a few good ideas as to how you can make some changes in your daily routine and shore up your mental and physical health without leaving your home. 

If you get the feeling that you’re through living in the home you currently reside in, that’s ok too. Once your quarantine period is over, you can find a real estate agent in your area and see what else is on the market; a move might do you good. From our team to yours, we wish you a speedy recovery!