Creating Space
We don’t know about you, but we went from living large – traveling, parties, music festivals and friends. All. Of. The. Friends. To having our days compressed and confined to the essentials that could be done from home.
Daily life was non-stop. Sometimes maybe it was too much, but now, five months into the longest pause we’ve ever taken, we’ve found some ways to live large – even in small spaces.
Zone Your Home
Reserve space in your home where work is not allowed. When the laptop made its way into our bed, we knew we had to draw the line. Not only did we not do our best work from a space intended for rest and relaxation, but it made it harder to turn work off and actually get any rest when it was finally time to sleep. Set up your WFH camp at your kitchen table, or even on the couch, but reserve your bedroom or patio strictly for movie-watching, meditating, or unwinding after the workday.
Balance Your Days
If we’ve learned anything, it’s that time is ours to squander. The early days of quarantine we were with you, baking bread, organizing our closets, cleaning like we’d never cleaned before, but then that bubble burst and we lost all motivation. Enter the Netflix and sweatpants phase. It wasn’t pretty, but what we learned was breaking up each day with time for physical activity, to work or study, to tackle a project or errand, to feel connected to our people, to be creative and finally to chill, helped us keep our head in the game.
Get Outside
Malls: closed. Theaters: closed. Restaurants: closed. Gyms: closed. WTF. And then we remembered this thing called the great outdoors and it’s been heaven. Who knew there were so many hiking trails in and around our neighborhood? And roller skates? We’ve been skating our way to buns of steel for weeks now and let us tell you it’s WAY more fun than squats in the gym. Also, picnics! They are as quaint as they are delicious and we hope we remember how much we like them even when indoor dining is a thing again.
Know Your Boundaries
This has been the hardest part, but figuring out our boundaries has been the single most impactful way we’ve created space for the wild within during these strange and challenging times. Once we decided what we made us comfortable and what didn’t – whether that meant only outside gatherings or gatherings of a certain size, etc. – setting those boundaries gave us a guide to navigate each day instead of agonizing of over every situation anew.
Creating space for the things that keep us engaged and feeling alive, ultimately isn’t just about the actual space to lay your yoga mat. It’s also about freeing your mind of the negative thoughts that get us down, sap our productivity and tame our wild.