"I think the greatest help you can get from anything is to find out that it doesn't work. Nothing in this human realm is meant to work. So once you can deeply appreciate that, for one thing the mind of compassion grows if you understand that everybody's up against it. I remember reading some works of Simon Veil, and she said there's only one question worth asking anybody and that question is 'What are you going through?'" - Leonard Cohen
It has been a while since I started an article with a famous-person quote. But a time such as this calls to borrow from the wisdom of poets and philosophers to help make some sense of things. By 4.0, our versions of the lockdown have come more swiftly than iOS updates, and we cannot even hit the ‘Remind me Later’ key. So what are you going through inside your homes, dear reader?
Since there is no boundary between work and family anymore, for many the lockdown has been a test of their management skills that no college prepared them for. Whether you have been organising online classes for your kids, watching Contagion (I would rather stick to Brooklyn 99), making your own sourdough starter (like my 25-year-old brother, but we got pizza from scratch so I am not complaining) or just numbing your brain for a few minutes with Yuki Kawae’s Zen sand art videos (maybe that’s just me) – this “new normal” has been confusing, and we have all had to make new routines for ourselves on the fly.
I moved back into my parents’ home for this period and have had to adjust to a new living environment, which added to the confusion. But a few days into this when it was clear that the lockdown would not be lifted in 14 days, I decided to create a new routine for myself. And the routine was carved around one priority – health and wellness. We are in a pandemic, the biggest health crisis we have ever been in, so really mute those people on your social media who tell you it’s OK to sit on the couch eating pasta and cookies while watching reruns of Friends for the 10th time. You must do that if you need to sometimes, but it is totally counter-intuitive to put the healthy aspects of your pre-lockdown routine last at this time of a health crisis.
There has never been a more important time to prioritise self-care, so we thought it would be good to put down a list of things that we have been doing, to keep physically and mentally well. It is OK if you are not able to do them all the time but aim for a certain level of consistency so that you can meet yourself at the other end of this crisis feeling as well as possible.
Exercise: You don’t really need gyms and studios to be open to have movement in your routine. Got a yoga mat? Or walking shoes? You are set. As lockdown began, my yoga teacher moved her classes online and doubled down on the practice of Pranayama (for healthy lungs, since Coronavirus attacks the lungs) and Yoga Nidra (for a calm mind). Exercise for the health benefits, not weight or shape. Even just a few Surya Namaskars a day followed by Pranayama, or a 30-minute walk in the morning sunlight (at a safe distance, of course) will help you ground and prepare for the rest of the day like nothing else can. The difference between those who exercise for vanity and those who do it for good health will be apparent in this lockdown. Follow @high.on.yoga and @ajinkyameheryoga on Instagram for inspiration and online classes.