The pandemic hit the world hard in the early parts of 2020 and it’s still reeling from the impact. As if adjusting to a work from home setting isn’t enough, there’s also the matter of rising infection rates and new variants getting discovered on an almost daily basis. That said, it’s everyone’s responsibility to keep safe and try to stay home as much as possible.
In itself, staying inside your condo in Mandaluyong can be a monotonous ordeal given the quarantine situation. This is exacerbated by the fact that the weekends (which are normally the escape from work), look so much like the weekdays. Thankfully, there are a few things you can do over the weekends that don’t involve you looking at your laptop screen nor at work-related items, if you can help it.
Focus On Self-Care
Statistically speaking, people have experienced a lot of anxiety and depression lately because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether it’s the fear of getting the disease or just the fact that you might be living alone, it can be mentally exhausting. This is why, during the weekends, you should put work items aside, lock your work-from-home office and focus on yourself.
Engage in activities that allow you to be calm and can contribute to your overall happiness. Mindfulness exercises allow you to stay grounded and, in more ways than one, gives you some hopeful perspective. Yoga allows you to breathe and physically engages you, making it a good practice of self-care. If needed, schedule an online psychotherapy session to help you deal with stress and anxiety. At the end of the day, keeping yourself mentally fit and healthy is your responsibility and the weekends are an excellent time to focus on it.
Start A Healthy Hobby
People have gone back to some bad habits because of the stress and anxiety brought about by COVID-19. This has tremendously impacted their health negatively and has, to some extent, made them more vulnerable to sickness. So these days, it’s important to really invest in keeping yourself physiologically healthy.
While it’s true that this kind of investment is more of a daily thing, you can make the weekends slightly more intense and interesting. For example, you can sign up for an online fitness program that will require you burn more than the usual amount of calories during the weekends.
To make it more rewarding, you can cook a hearty but healthy meal after a rather intense and long homebound workout. After that, you can recover by taking the rest of the remaining weekend off and just resting. This works for both beginners and those who already have a fitness routine.
Get Creative
Have you ever wanted to get a headstart on a book idea that you have? Ever wanted to pick up the paintbrush again after a long time? Always wanted to create a podcast on a subject you are very passionate about? The weekends are a great time to do those and more. After all, since you will be indoors more often, it’s a great opportunity to work on creative pursuits.
You can get in touch with your creative self and start working on that passion project. Whether it’s DIY crafts, writing, sculpting, painting or even content creation in YouTube, so long as it’s not work-related and it’s a personal project then it’s a worthwhile investment of weekend time.
Catch Up With Friends And Family
These days, it can be very difficult to live alone and away from the family. Having no one to talk to or engage with in a social manner can eat away at your sanity in long periods of time. This is why it’s important to schedule calls with them occasionally. Given that weekends are meant for rest, then it’s the best time to catch up on how they’re doing and let them know you’re okay.
For others who live with their families, it’s important to maintain close friendships. Given the pandemic, that can be difficult to do especially if you usually used to go out with them for shopping or any other kind of social activity. Scheduling a call with them is a good way of catching up with them and letting them know that you care about them.
It doesn’t always have to be a long zoom call since you can make it more interesting by simulating activities that you used to do offline. It could be a lunch catch up, or a dinner conversation, it can even be a movie hangout. So long as you spend time with each other, regardless of it being online, it’s still time outside of work and you’re enjoying each others’ presence.