After spending nearly 3 months in a lockdown caged within our concrete boxes, each one of us has experienced a lot of change, difficulties, and immeasurable unpredictabilities. What began as a break from the outside world, a break from the lives that were running way ahead of ourselves, has now drained every other human, mentally and physically.
Who knew staying at home could also cause tiredness? Well, it’s quarantine fatigue. And, it is real. When all of this had just started, everyone was determined to stay safe, alert, and protected against the virus. However, during these two-three months, we’ve lost clarity & the end seems to be nowhere in our sights.
A crisis mode activated within each one of us, which brought along buckets of anxiety for some, and stress for the others. It’s a mode our neurons never anticipated to last this long, thereby causing our brain to acclimate – hence, quarantine fatigue.
While the country may have allowed us to reopen our doors and step outside, our brave will to stay away from the virus and online academics/work return us to home quarantine. Therefore, this new variant of fatigue is inevitable. So, let’s have a look at some ways you could cope with it.
1. Don’t Push Away Your Thoughts, Especially the Negative Ones
Trust me, as much as they may seem to hurt our brain, they’re necessary for an individual’s survival.
Ignoring, pushing, or avoiding them is a BIG NO. When you do that, you’re giving the thought time to crawl back into your mind stronger than before, and you don’t want that, do you?
Defuse, tame, acknowledge & validate them instead. Whether it’s frustration or powerlessness, the number of negative emotions don’t matter. What matters is how you deal with it.
2. Self-care
No amount of self-care is too much; it’s like water and sunshine, and you’re a sapling. While you may have some fixed self-care habits, there’s always room for experimenting with new techniques of caring & loving yourself. Especially with all this extra & unstructured time, you could try something new like inking a paper with all your thoughts or spilling some colours on an empty canvas. Who knows you might find a hidden Michelangelo within yourself?
3. Make a Routine and Stick to it
If staying faithful to a routine was as easy as making one, life would’ve been a hundred times easier. Unfortunately, that’s not the case. I’m sure you’ve made study routines, taken up chore responsibilities, but lacked discipline. There are times we create unrealistic routines that we can’t possibly adhere to; so, begin with something really easy. Even starting with a fixed bedtime & wake-up every day is a start, and eventually, you can sneak habits into your schedule one at a time. You may believe in living whimsically, and that’s okay, but there’s no harm in trying a routine-life, right?
4. What’s Your Growth?
All these days of living with uncertainty have some or the other way stunned our growth as a human being. You may have had nights with nothing to look forward the next day, even the thought of a dull tomorrow gets must’ve gotten tiring. Your restlessness combined with fatigue has hit the pause button to the growth of your sapling. It’s time you say goodbye to laziness and hit play. Did you have a few skills in mind that you wished to master in your free time? Maybe learning how to speak German or playing the guitar that’s been eating dust for years in your room? There’ll be a day post the corona chaos, hopefully soon, when you’ll be looking back to your quarantined life; wouldn’t you wish you would’ve nurtured your sapling beautifully during this time?
5. Look After Your Loved Ones
Humans are social beings. We’re genetically trained to crave human connections & conversations. If you’ve been experiencing the quarantine fatigue, have you thought of other characters that are a part of your life? Whether they’re living with you in the same house or seven oceans across, reach out! Make conversations, relive old memories, forgive the ones who hurt you, stay in touch with those who’ve been pulling through this pandemic all alone; you can’t hug them but you could definitely video call them!
Patience, understanding, and little vigilance is all it’ll take for you & your loved ones to get to the opposite side of this seemingly endless storm. It’ll all pass eventually, however, note: You are not alone. Reach out to someone if you were to ever a trip down the path of loneliness; we’re all in this together.
