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Most of the stay-at-home orders in the United States have been lifted since the beginning of summer, but many businesses remain closed to observe the need for social distancing. Many schools are starting the school year fully remote, and many people are making the individual choice to continue staying home – myself included.
That’s not to say that I don’t have moments of fully forgetting we’re fighting a pandemic; I do. I happily make plans without a second thought, only to realize later that going out to dinner or attending a convention probably isn’t the best idea right now. It sucks having to constantly remind myself of those things, but that’s our current reality.
That said, I think I’ve done a really good job of falling in love with my life and my home during lock-down. I’ve discovered lots of benefits to staying home that I wouldn’t get to experience if things were “back to normal”.
I think it goes without saying for those of us who have been fortunate enough to switch from working at an office to working from home, working from home has been a massive improvement. I’m much more productive without the constant stream of office interruption. And my time has become so much more valuable.
In my position it’s rare to have a full eight hours of work to keep me occupied. Those pockets of time I used to spend at the office waiting around for the next thing I had to do are now filled with getting quick chores done, making necessary phone calls, and honestly just enjoying the little things like sneaking in an afternoon snuggle with one of the cats. This particular arrangement has been a dream come true for me. I’ve been making the argument for years that most office jobs can be performed remotely. The stay-at-home orders were a perfect opportunity to prove that, and I will never take for granted the freedom that comes with it.
Cutting out my morning get-ready routine and commute time created space for a new opportunity and I used that extra time to earn a 200-hour yoga teaching certification. Yoga became a part of my daily practice, and it made me curious about other forms of exercise I’d previously shunned. A good friend of mine who is a fitness instructor started streaming at-home Pilates workouts live on Facebook so I started exercising with her three or four times a week. The difference it’s made has been astonishing. I actually have core strength now and have learned to recruit the proper muscles for performing movement. I feel stronger and more in tune with my body than I ever have.
I purchased most of my can’t-live-without-it home gym equipment from Amazon. If you’re looking to be more active while staying home, definitely pick these up:
Staying home more has let me prioritize movement more than ever, which seems counterintuitive since I’m not really going anywhere. But not going anywhere means my calendar isn’t filled with obligations and I can approach my own life more slowly and thoughtfully. Instead of defaulting to lounging around or collapsing on the sofa after an emotionally and mentally draining work day, I’m able to sustain an energetic flow more consistently throughout the day. I don’t sit in front of my computer waiting for tasks to perform. I sit only when I need to focus on something, and the rest of the time I’m up and moving about. It’s been much easier to fight inertia and I always feel much better about myself when I’ve had a productive, active day.
A massive improvement in my overall posture has been another side effect of prioritizing movement and getting away from my desk more often. Now in my mid-thirties, I’ve noticed how much 25+ years of desk education and office jobs are impacting my body. Pain I’ve experienced in my knees and hips, poor flexibility in my ankles, and a weak posterior chain are all attributable to the sedentary lifestyle that I’ve led. I finally understand quite clearly that you can’t out-train an office job. An hour at the gym isn’t effective to combat the effects of nine hours or more of sitting each day.
I purchased this sit-to-stand desk from Amazon and have been really impressed with it. It’s incredibly stable and it shifts smoothly from sitting to standing. It also is tall enough for me at 5’9” so I can definitely recommend for those of you who are on the taller side. If you just need a monitor riser, I’ve got two of these (pictured right) that I use around my house for my laptop. They’re very chic and height is adjustable.
I’ve been able to strengthen my back, straighten my shoulders, and level my pelvis by using my body the way it was meant to be used, being up and around more often throughout the day. It’s kind of blown my mind how many of us sign away our health when we take an office job for life, and no one is talking about it. I feel very lucky to have experienced this change in myself because of staying at home.
It sounds really simple, but just going for a walk every day that the weather has permitted has been such a rejuvenating experience. Going for a walk used to feel like another chore. It was something I had to mentally gear up for, and honestly I used to view it as just one more thing taking up my time in the evenings.
But during the initial shutdowns, I got so antsy that I would walk in circles around my house. Ricky and I got on board the daily walks pretty early on just as a means of releasing energy and having something to do. The number of people in our neighborhood that we also saw taking to the sidewalks was like I’ve never seen in my time living here. Again, the difference I feel in my body just getting that bit of regular movement and fresh air every day has been amazing. It’s just been really enjoyable to lace up my walking shoes and move my body around in an upright position for half an hour or so. It refreshes me without fail.
It’s interesting because when I had to leave for the office by 6:45am it was a struggle to get up at 5 and work my way through my morning routine. This hasn’t been a problem for me since the first stay-at-home order. Since two hours of my morning are no longer devoted to a get-ready routine and a commute, that time is what I devote to self-improvement. I use that time to study yoga, journal, and meditate. I use that time to blog. Or even just to return to my practice of building to-do lists to organize the flow of my day better.
This experience has really driven home the point that you can have a very different life experience if you direct your energy toward what matters most to you instead of letting your priorities be dictated by other people. Spending so much time on people and activities that drained me gave me absolutely no motivation to pick myself up and get going in the morning, and left me exhausted by early evening. Now that more of my time is my own, I see things coming back into my life (or entering my life for the first time) that I haven’t devoted time or attention to in years, and I feel so much better because of it.
The stay at home orders, and my subsequent decision to continue staying home as much as possible, has made me fall in love with my home. For most of us, our home is the single most expensive purchase we will ever make. And yet we spend all of our time away from home, ensuring that we’re able to pay for it. It makes it all too easy to lose perspective and start taking your home for granted.
Spending more of my time here has given me a new sense of appreciation for everything that I have. It’s also opened my eyes to how much excess exists in the world. I’ve also been able to devote more attention to putting some of those finishing touches on our home that I’ve thought about for years but just never find the time to address.
Early during the stay home orders, I spent a lot of time just organizing. It was eye-opening to see how much I have that I never paid attention to before, and it made the entire house feel less hectic. Instead of jamming things into drawers and never knowing where the measuring tape was, it brought me one step closer to my ideal of having a place for everything, and keeping everything in its place.
It might sound cliché, but as I’ve already mentioned, staying home more has changed my perspective on so many things. It’s helped me see how much I already have, and it’s removed all of the needless, sometimes costly distraction that I used to rely on so heavily. Not going to restaurants or bars for the past five months has saved loads of money. I don’t go to stores for things that aren’t necessities; no more browsing through beauty shops or the aisles at Target and coming home with a hundred dollars’ worth of skin care products and makeup that do the same thing as the products I already have.
Becoming aware of how much I truly have has been so beneficial. And my bank account is thanking me, too. Reducing the habit of spending money as a form of entertainment has made it possible for us to direct more money toward what matters most to us. We’ve had new carpet put down in the house, and have both indoor and outdoor projects we’re planning to tackle in the fall. It’s been a very liberating experience to see how much of my resources were being directed to places that weren’t serving me in the long run.
This is really just a sampling of the realizations I’ve come to while staying home in 2020. Thinking back to spring, I remember all of the memes circulating about how maybe we could collectively view staying home as a worldwide pause. We could use the time for introspection, to stop, and heal, and think intentionally about our lives. I’m quite proud of how I’ve implemented that in my own life and brought about real change for myself that I think will have quite an impact on my future. As the world opens back up, I don’t plan to forget what I’ve learned so far this year. For me, going “back to normal” isn’t an option.
