Moving through
Immobile Times
5 minute read
We all need to move as human beings. For many, "Keep Moving" is a purpose of life. However, as the globe is grappling with the COVID-19 pandemic, we became mostly immobile, tied to our homes. This time, we offer a few innovative ways to get through these uncertain times while ensuring that we all stay safe and keep ourselves moving.
Mobility is hard-wired into us. That instinct to keep moving, to keep progressing. For our ancestors, mobility was a matter of survival. It meant hunting, gathering, and moving from place to find food.
Fast forward a hundred thousand years, and we’re no longer hunting for our dinner, yet our hunger to stay mobile remains. We yearn to learn, to create and move forward. Not simply for survival, but for the sake of art, science, spirituality or to create our own legacy. This hunger has moved us to travel, learn and connect with new people and cultures. It has helped us do business, organize societies, cure the sick and even overcome death itself. From Stonehenge to space travel, the Mona Lisa to internet memes, progress has brought the world beauty as well as breakthroughs.
It’s no wonder then that the restrictions put on our movement by COVID-19 have been such a shock to our collective psyche. Overnight, we’ve hit pause on our career goals and precious travel plans. We’ve said goodbye to our physical social lives. For perhaps the first time in our lives, we’ve been officially ordered to stay home and stay still. After years of moving forward, it seems we’ve suddenly ground to a halt. Or have we?
5 Ways To Cope With Covid Quarantine
We have temporarily said goodbye to life as we knew it. But, a quarantine doesn't keep us from doing what we need to do. Rather, it opens up space for creating new ideas and possibilities. Connection, exploration and progress are still out there waiting to be found. We just need to embrace new ways of living as soon as we can. Ever since the lockdown was enforced, we've seen a plethora of creative ideas popping up from around the world. Numerous apps, projects and initiatives have sprung up to help us cope and move forward. Here, we share some useful tips to manage stress and motivate yourself while staying indoors.
1. Find A Project You Can Do Online
We are quickly discovering that just because we are no longer allowed to travel and meet each other physically, we can still keep moving in other ways. After all, mobility is not just moving from A to B. The mind, the body, the heart all long to be moved. And especially the soul.
In difficult times, the human heart aches for inspiration, but luckily for us, a number of online projects have been created today. Artists are using online tools to bring people together to paint, craft, and cook from home. And a number of ways to respond to the covid crisis with creativity and compassion in the virtual world: from an online website that invites designers to create public announcement posters to a virtual platform connecting mask makers and medical facilities, and apps to help reach those in need.
2. Release The Stress With Meditation
Of course, as well as daily doses of inspiration, we are also in need of meditation. To deal with the challenges of self-isolation, we’re all looking for ways to stay calm and mobile in the mind. From voice message visualizations to bubble bath meditations, spiritual coaches everywhere are sharing new ways to take the stress out of lockdown life.
3. Exercise At Home
There has never been a more opportune time to work out at home than now. Living rooms have become gyms and fruit juice cartons are the new free weights. Not even a pandemic can stop people from getting their adrenalin hit. And with other projects put on pause, fitness goals are becoming our invaluable source of fulfillment.
4. Use Music As Medicine
They say that music can heal our bodies and minds by reducing stress. After all, singing and dancing have been an indispensable part of humanity. Even if we can no longer have real-world concerts right now, there are many great virtual alternatives available from online choirs to cloud-based nightclubs. Create your favorite playlist and use music as an inexpensive form of therapy.
5. Take Advantage Of Your Free Time
Finally, for those who find themselves more free time on their hands, this period can be a perfect opportunity to learn something new. Some of us are hungrily searching for new skills. Others are discovering skills through new circumstances - like full-time parenting, DIY, or simply learning how to do nothing at all. Whatever it might be, utilize your time at home to help you progress in your life.
In just a matter of weeks, humanity has proved that even when circumstances hold us back, we have the drive and the technology to keep moving forward. Mobility hasn’t stopped. It’s just been reimagined.
The world may have hit pause, but this doesn’t have to be lost time. Enforced solitude shines a light on many things of our lives that we took for granted. Which aspects of us are aching to keep moving, to keep developing? Now is an opportunity for each and every one of us to think and grow in new ways. It’s time to really get to know ourselves. It may take time, but collectively we will get through this. And we will be stronger, fitter, more skilled, and more mindful. We will be changed, for the better. So that when the time comes for us to come together again, we’ll be renewed, refreshed, and ready to create our new reality. And not just for ourselves, our family and friends, but for all humanity.