The happy physical-distancing stay-at-home life
Staying at home isn't easy for many people around the world. I'm thoroughly grateful for what we have in our physical-distancing life...
So here are things I'm grateful for in life under (soft) lockdown.
☘ We have space; the kids have space
We're staying at home but we are most fortunate that there is more than one room for the kids to be in.Granted, they're usually in our family room, which also contains my working desk (not ideal!!), but at least there is a kids' play/TV room in their late uncle's quarters across a passageway and a storage room downstairs that Auntie had cleared up for Engineer to spread out his huge Plarail train set.
I'm also thankful that Husband can continue going to his lab during the week so he's got his own space. Don't get me wrong — I love it when he's home but he's also quite noise-sensitive and keeping the kids' noises down while he's home could get a bit tiring 😁
☘ The kids have a pool to play in
If this weren't privileged, what is? (^^; But there you have it.A few years ago, Auntie decided to build a small pool next to her house. The kids are using it every day. It's too small to actually swim in, but perfect for kids to play in and get their exercise.
☘ We have many helping hands
We are utterly spoiled in that we have helpers to clean and wash and launder, to keep 5-year-old Entropy entertained, to keep an eye on the kids in the pool, and to make the kids their dinner.☘ We can stay connected, be active (somewhat), keep learning, notice, and give
I just learned during a casual FIGT Coffee & Chat over Zoom about the Five Ways to Wellbeing. It's a model to promote mental health and wellbeing and, as intercultural psychologist Trisha Carter explained, one that has particular relevance as we all stay physically distant.
I loved that it was a very simple list! My reflections on these points:
- CONNECT: Being at home has motivated me to be in touch with family and friends more often or to write to someone who had fallen out of touch, or to join Zoom video conferences that I might have shied away from under normal circumstances. It's also great being next to Auntie — we are enjoying our weekly dinners together. It's possible this isn't strict physical distancing but the kids haven't left the house in 5-6 weeks and I only go out once a week for groceries, and we agree it's very good for our mental health.
- BE ACTIVE: This one is tough! In Singapore, I was biking (just a little bit) every morning and walked a lot to/from bus stops. Luckily, my hula teacher in Bangkok started online sessions and so I've been enjoying reconnecting with her and hula.
- KEEP LEARNING: I'm always into learning :) especially to build my editing skills, which is important to me as an independent English editor. But admittedly it's a bit hard to carve out undistracted time for learning with kids running about all day...plus I feel a bit distracted in general.
- NOTICE: Here's one that needs a bit of extra conscious effort from me...but I do take note of what we have and be grateful for it. Also blogging and Instagramming are great — I can look at every activity, every experience from a slightly detached point of view and find the humor in most situations.
- GIVE: It's very very small, but making small donations to organizations and tipping people extra, hiring someone's services, or even ordering delivery from restaurants that need the boost feels good 😆 Also making an effort to be in touch with family and friends over the distances feels good.
...Hmm...pretty much ALL of the five points requires a functioning Internet! So it seems I need to conclude with: my gratitude for the Internet!! 😆
Further resources
- the new economics foundation. 2008. Five Ways to Wellbeing.
- Cultural Intelligence Collective. 2017. Wellbeing for Expats. Webinar, 28 September.
Cover photo by Comfreak via Pixabay
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