Silver Linings of the Lockdown

By Cathleen Rodgers

There’s no doubt about it — these last few months have sent everyone’s lives into a tailspin. Weeks of confusion, worry, and chaos surrounding the effects of the pandemic have left many of us  wondering what life will look like in the coming weeks as the world continues to adjust. What we must remember most as we move forward are the positive outcomes that quarantine brought us. Here are some of the brightest silver linings we’ve seen emerge from the lockdown:

FAMILY TIME

With everything closed and everyone on a stay-at-home order, there was a lot of opportunity for family time. Life has a way of getting in the way, keeping people busy and often stripping family time from our schedules. We were lucky to have an abundance of it during lockdown.

FAMILY MEALS

Cooking and baking together was a popular activity for many during lockdown, and there’s no mystery as to why; food has brought people together since the beginning of time. A delicious, nourishing meal with loved ones is good for the soul, regardless of whether it may have happened in person or virtually.

OUTDOOR ACTIVITIES

We were so lucky to have experienced a mild winter and early spring this year. Now we welcome summer! Embracing the (overall) good weather allowed many of us to participate regularly in outdoor activities throughout the lockdown, something we may tend to miss out on normally. Running, biking, sports, even the simple act of walking — wonderful ways to boost your mood AND your immunity during such a time!

HOME / VIRTUAL WORKOUTS

There were a plethora of online and virtual workout opportunities for us to partake in to stay fit, even with all fitness studios and gyms being closed. Studio BE Pilates offered Pilates via the popular Zoom, and both clients and instructors loved it. Virtual workouts gave us a chance to get creative with our workouts and get our hearts pumping in the comfort of our own home.

HOUSE CLEANING & ORGANIZING

For the first time in a long time, many of us found ourselves with extra time to indulge in some serious cleaning and organizing. From huge undertakings (basement purge, anyone?) to smaller projects (linen closet or pantry, perhaps), a lot of us did at least a little sprucing up in our homes. After all, decluttering a space helps declutter the mind.

ZOOM CELEBRATIONS

Birthdays, graduations, reunions, and other special events were all essentially canceled this spring, but that did not stop people from finding a way to celebrate! Zoom events and celebrations became the “norm” during lockdown, and many of us participated in something along those lines. A creative, fun way to bring joy to our lives with loved ones, even when we couldn’t physically be together.

RECONNECTING WITH PEOPLE

Reconnecting with old family and friends was a special activity we had time for during lockdown. Reaching out to high school and college friends, old teachers, distant family, etc…it was really amazing the way people came together to check in on one another, send their love, and bring life back into relationships that had dwindled.

TIME FOR HOBBIES

Those hobbies you barely get to touch on a regular basis? Well for many of us, we welcomed the extra time in our life to indulge in our favorite hobbies once again — old and new. Sewing, quilting, meditating, reading, painting, baking, and so many other types of peaceful, creative activities became a staple in our lockdown lives. Let’s hope we continue to make time for our beloved hobbies moving forward, even as things get busier.

SELF-CARE

We aren’t necessarily talking about a nice face mask or glass of wine here — though there were certainly a lot of opportunities for those, too. The lockdown gave us a chance to re-evaluate the way we take care of our mind and body; the food we eat, the media and news we consume….it all affects our general well-being. The extra time we had during lockdown was the perfect chance for us to fine-tune our habits and create healthier versions of ourselves.

TIME TO JUST BE

Something many of us hardly ever get to do anymore is just sit; just think; just be. No pressure to meet obligations or stick to a rigid schedule. Many of us were granted spare time in which we could merely embrace life in the moment and really live it. Often, time passes so quickly and life happens without us fully being present; so it was a gift that we were able to fully live out even the simplest of moments and days during the lockdown.

Lockdown provided us with some great opportunities to grow and to come back to ourselves. Regardless of the various hardships we all faced, we can only hope we will emerge from this pandemic stronger, living life more purposefully in light of the silver linings we found.