5 Things I’ve Learned a Year Into the Pandemic
One year ago, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a global pandemic, forcing all of us to stay indoors and socially distance to stop the spread of the virus. That same pandemic has now killed over two million people across the globe.
With the vaccine rollout, a new administration in control of the government and the countdown to warmer, spring weather, it’s beginning to feel like things are slowly but surely getting back to normal. Looking back has made me reflect on what normalcy will look like for me again and the lessons I learned during quarantine that I hope to continue once this pandemic is over.
Self-care is more than just zoning out on your couch and watching TV - At a young age, I was fortunate enough to understand how to love my body and the skin that I’m in. What I did not realize was that I was not implementing the self-care aspect of truly loving myself and my body.
During the pandemic, I learned that tuning out the world for a couple of hours by binge-watching a TV show or movie is not the only form of self-care I could practice. It also should not be my only form of self-care. It took some time, but I learned how to meditate and try to do it every day after I wake up in the morning instead of immediately looking at my phone. Long baths, walks with the dog, taking the time to cook a favorite healthy meal, drawing, or trying a new face mask were also small things I tried to do during lockdown to ease my anxiety and make myself feel good.
Explore your city and enjoy the outdoors - Months before the pandemic began, my partner and I were settling into our new apartment in Jersey City. When we were sent into lockdown, we spent a lot of time outside and realized that we had never actually taken the time to walk around and explore our city before. We decided to take two-hour walks around our town after work, take in the fresh air and just talk about our day.
Since adopting Princess Party Time, we still try to do this once a week with her so she can explore her new home.
Call your mom, your abuela and your loved ones more - Not being able to run home and see my mom or my dad during the pandemic out of fear of putting them at risk for COVID-19 was hard. It was even more difficult not knowing what would happen to my father, who is an essential worker.
FaceTime, Houseparty and Zoom meetings with friends and family really helped me get through quarantine. Even though it was behind a screen, being able to share stories, laugh and talk to my loved ones made everything seem normal for a couple of hours. It also made me realize how I never used to really take the time to do this with some of my family members prior to the pandemic. It’s something that I plan to continue to do to stay connected even after quarantine is over.
Stop making that awful whipped coffee - This whipped coffee monstrosity that went viral on Tik Tok made my arm hurt from whipping it by hand. Even after all of that work, it tasted awful. So, lesson learned I guess. *Disclaimer: Nikki says I’m doing it wrong and she’s probably right, but you couldn’t pay me to give this another try*
Plan for the days after the pandemic is over - During quarantine, I started to make a list of small things I would like to do once this is all over. Writing down all of my plans, like seeing a live concert, watching a movie at a theater, hugging my Abuela, or going to a bar helped ease my anxiety and helped me look forward to some normalcy again.