Let's assume you've finished "Avatar: The Last Airbender" for the second time and read all your weary eyes can stand. Doing our part and limiting the time we spend outdoors is an integral part of helping society at large keep COVID-19 in check. Consider these unconventional, outdated, or traditionally disregarded activities to keep yourself busy and connected.
1. Write letter
Most people, in every age demographic, have made relentless efforts to stay connected, especially before most states started relaxing their pandemic regulations. If you consider yourself an anti-socialite like me, conversations seem a bit awkward or frightening no matter how much you cherish the company. I've recently committed to writing letters to people close to me. Letters lack the practicality of texting and the intimacy of FaceTime, but receiving letters usually comes with the assumption that you'll take some time to create a sincere and heartfelt response.
2. Meditate
Closing your eyes, letting your muscles relax, and allowing your breath to reach a natural rhythm. This is one of the few things that lets me really center myself, mentally. When I feel stiff from sitting down all day or start stressing out with no place to go, I go back to some old habits. Namely, I twitch, my knees bounce up and down, and my neck tightens up randomly. Fifteen minutes of sitting motionless and actively keeping still brings me back into a sense of control if only for the quiet it brings.
3. Evaluate your habits
You sleep differently if you sleep at all, and no matter how organized, you may worry that your time is being squandered or your fitness regimen isn't what it used to be. After weeks of trying, you may have the luck I am changing in changing my bedtime from two in the morning to eleven at night. I have also been experimenting with biphasic sleep (sleeping in two short shifts, amounting to a more-or-less complete rest). While pre-industrial sleeping patterns might not be the perfect solution for anyone, playing around with these strict sleeping habits may help prepare you to settle into your desired routine.
4. Practice your academic writing
With the next semester on the way, you may be preparing to finish your education online. Keeping your nerd muscles in shape is crucial to academic success as an online student. Revise old essays from previous semesters, practice rewriting them, and conduct research of your own. You may find something that genuinely stimulates your imagination. At the least, it gives you content for a personal blog and keeps your writing skills sharp.
5. Write a cover letter
Every Evie Everyman has a resume (Unless you don't! That's OK. Maybe write a resume!), but many positions require a cover letter. You may be eager to either find a new job or simply find a job as soon as you can. Find those resources, get yourself ready. Consider remote internships if there are few in your area. More than anything else, be ready to make a good impression. There's no time like the present.
6. Talk to yourself
I would not recommend whispering to yourself that the rivers will run red unless that's your sort of quirk and you have a clean bill of mental health. However, taking the time to silently work through your thoughts and reflect on your reactions to your environment is a wonderful way to keep yourself in check from becoming irritable and distant. Dialogue with yourself, figure out why you had that argument, journal it. Whatever you need to move yourself to closure and understand where you stand with yourself and others in a way that doesn't destroy your relationships.
Hopefully, this list has been helpful. There are plenty of things that I do imperfectly in this list and countless others that I don't have the room to write about. If you're up to it, take the time to write your own little guide for the Odyssey community.
