Cultivate a Healthy Home During Quarantine
I ventured outside to capture photos of the yard today.
By now we’ve all seen the memes and the jokes about the #QuarantineLife, comically detailing how various shelter-in-place mandates have caused massive boredom to strike. But are we really looking at the root of our issues with being at home?
Perhaps many Americans are realizing as I type that the boyfriend or girlfriend they’ve enjoyed splitting the rent with for a few years is not in fact their soulmate. Maybe there are parents out there regretting not buying that PlayStation 4 or a second laptop. Or perhaps you’re hearing your upstairs neighbors make repeated efforts to procreate during the pandemic and you’ve had enough.
Right now there is more time than we’ve ever had to just sit and reflect. Cultivating a healthy home should indeed be a priority for every adult right now – those with children and those of us without children.
I know it’s cliché, but home truly should be where the heart is. Home should be a space where you feel completely free to be your most authentic self; a place to relax; a place to let down your subconscious guards and constantly be rejuvenated before having to face an outside world that is often times unfriendly.
Of course there are people at home right now, because their jobs have let them go. They can’t so much focus on enjoying their respective spaces because their worries about paying for said space have overcome them. We haven’t forgotten about the many innocent people in this country dealing with such terrible circumstances.
I’m speaking more specifically to the millions of Americans, like myself who were instructed to take the company laptop home and to continue working from their living rooms. It seems as if half of us are enjoying the time around our own bathrooms; in our pajamas and our love affair with the refrigerator. The other half keeps suggesting we’re on punishment because “outside is closed.”
For those who are upset about the quarantine, are you angry because limitations have been placed on outdoor access and your driving privileges have been impacted? Or does your home not offer you enough of an oasis to be content? Are the children really that bothersome? Or does everyone in the home just not have enough to do?
Whether we’re talking 500 square foot studio apartments or 5,000 square foot homes enveloped by acres upon acres of yard space, over the next month the walls may begin to close in on all of us. This is why, now moreso than ever before we must take seriously the urgency that is cultivating a healthy home.
Children are our best teachers, as they can create a game out of virtually anything. Let them, so long as they partake in the cleanup thereafter. Paint a wall, cook something you’ve never cooked before, nurture your plants, move around your bedroom furniture, photograph random household items, play video games, lay on the couch and watch television or just sit still and meditate.
We are in unfamiliar territory, but that does not mean we have to feel like prisoners in our own homes.
The objective here is not to beat you over the head for whom you picked to reside with in your home. The truth is we all annoy someone after spending an extensive amount of time together. This time, however, will reveal valuable lessons to us all. How do we really live as human beings? Have our homes always served as just places to eat and sleep? Or have we made our homes our safe spaces?
Let’s try our best to incorporate purposeful activities into our quarantine days, with physical activity and limitless communication with our loved ones.
When all of this is over, whether it is the end of May or in October – children should be both sad to leave the comfort of their homes, and excited to return to school knowing that their safe space awaits them each day. As adults, we should be able to reflect on quarantine time well spent cultivating a healthy home.
