We’re facing dark times right now due to COVID-19. As we try to stay safe from the virus by practicing social distancing and staying home, we should be wary of how we are coping with such a massive change to our lives. When it comes to staying sane, many find solace in going out, hanging out with friends at restaurants or bars. People blow off steam at the gym or find comfort in coffee shops or parks. Yet with the stay at home order, our comforts and escapes have been taken away from us. Then the question is, what can I do to cope with this new lifestyle? There isn’t one perfect way, but here are some ideas to help you pass the time.

P.S. This blog post is a collaboration between my best friend, Julia, and myself. Make sure you check out the downloadable PDF attached for Julia’s list of show and other activity recommendations!

THINGS TO DO DURING quarantine:

1. TUNE IN WITH YOUR HOBBIES

Before quarantine, how many of us can say that we leave sometime to tune in to our hobbies? I know I RARELY do. We get so caught up with life that we neglect to feed our soul with time away from work and doing activities that brings us pleasure and reduces stress. Since we are quarantined at home due to this pandemic, we have more, if not all, the time to do these things.

KRIZTELLE: Two main hobbies that I’m passionate about is photography and DIY activities! Don’t get me wrong, this pandemic is horrible and I wouldn’t want something like this to happen again. However, becoming a part-time employee meant I had more time at home to actually work on my hobbies. This INSPIRED and EXCITE me.

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I’ve taken on the FaceTime Photoshoot Challenge that’s been trending for photographers. This is such a fun and challenging way to practice photography because you’re very limited as to what you can do and you have to do your best to direct the other person on how to set up their devices to get the right angle, lighting and all that jazz.

JULIA: A hobby I took up when my anxiety started to peak a few years back, was making “friendship” bracelets. It goes along with the idea of fidget spinners and cubes. When I am stressed or anxious, my hands and mind need to be occupied and focused. Making bracelets is a good outlet and the product is always cute! I would gift my bracelets to people I cared about. This is a video that I found intuitive or you can just google “DIY friendship bracelets” for more tutorials or more complex patterns. You can use any type of string but the one most commonly used is embroidery floss!

2. Stay connected!

Take this opportunity to let your loved ones know how you feel. Write a letter, poem, song, video or text. Now is the time to take a break from our busy lives and cherish the ones around us.

There are so many outlets available to stay connected with your loved ones which is the best thing about the Internet! From Facebook Messenger, FaceTime, Google Hangouts, Zoom, and many more! If you’re looking for a fun app to connect with your family and friends, Facebook Messenger and HouseParty because you can make conversations more fun by playing games and use fun filters (Messenger only).

3. LEARN SOMETHING NEW

What better time to pick up that guitar and learn that new song you’ve been meaning to learn, or try out grandma’s most famous banana bread recipe!?

As for learning, if you’re like Julia and myself, we LOVE to learn new things or further our knowledge about a topic that we already know. Learning is never ending! This doesn’t necessarily have to be something academic, it could be a new song to play with your guitar, learn a new language, or learn a new recipe.

KRIZTELLE: During this down time, I’ve devoted enough time towards learning how to better manage and market my photography business. Since I’m new to the game, I want to learn how to better serve my clients to give them the best possible experience with all their photography needs. I’ve been tuning in to The Heart & Hustle Podcast by Lindsey Roman and Evie Rupp. Both are wedding photographers and educators in their field. Their podcast is not only AMAZING for entrepreneurs, but it’s good for people who needs motivation and guidance with life in general.

JULIA: I have taken advantage of free courses from Harvard to brush up on my skills. I have an affinity for Shakespeare, so I signed up for a course on “Othello.” This is something that I find captivating. One thing I learned was the word “sprezzatura,” which is a word used to describe the way of dismissing your art to claim you are just a simple person but deep down inside you have confidence in your own artistry. The word is impactful! It may not be the most relevant topic but it sparks the most joy!

A lot of companies and academic institutions are offering greatly discounted to FREE courses during this quarantine period. So if you’ve been itching to learn something new, or improve on your skills or business, whatever it may be, here is a list of places that have current deals with courses.

I will leave the comments on for this post so if you know more resources for learning opportunities, feel free to share it down below!

• Harvard University – FREE Online Courses with variety of subject areas

• Nikon School Online – Nikon is currently offering free courses relating to a camera. Photography and videography, and more.

• Coursera Together – Similar to Harvard, Coursera is offering a variety of online courses that you can take, and they have courses available in Spanish.

• Varsity Tutors – Offering 30 days of virtual online tutoring for students from kindergarten through 12th grade.

• freeCodeCamp – Free courses to learn how code at home.

• Duolingo – learn a new language for free!!

• HelloTalk – “learn a language by chatting to native speakers around the world”

• Quarantine Kitchen

  • “Even if you hate cooking, when else will you have the chance to learn from a Michelin chef? Massimo Bottura, whose name is associated with one of Italy’s finest restaurants, Osteria Francescana, recently announced the launch of his Instagram cooking course.”

• and many more! Just Google “free online courses COVID”

4. Write down your thoughts, all of them

JULIA: Sometimes having a million thoughts in your mind at once can be overwhelming. A good tactic for racing thoughts is writing everything down. Every thought, dream, idea, melody, joke…EVERYTHING. This can be for positive and negative thoughts. For me, it helps to get them out of my mind. Even if writing is not your thing, it is important to have an outlet. An alternative to writing is audio! Sometimes if I am driving or don’t have paper and pens available, I’ll record a voice note of my thoughts just to get it out. When I am in a different state of mind, I sometimes go back and read my writing. This can be a good opportunity for introspection!

5. make some plans for when this is all over.

KRIZTELLE: I find that having something to get excited about is an overall emotional and mood booster. Instead of feeling anxious and lonely, we can get hung up on planning fun stuff with our friends and family. I’ve always been excited about planning ahead, especially when it involves travelling!! But it doesn’t mean that’s the only thing you can look forward to once all of this is over.

Part of planning ahead, I currently have some promotional offers on the table for anybody who is looking for any photography services! Check out my Instagram for more details! Another thing I want to do once this is all over is to TRAVEL! I had to cancel our trip to Atlanta this month due to the pandemic. I’m looking forward to the day that we can all travel again…

JULIA: My friends and I are the type to spend hours just thinking about what to do on our night out. This is a great opportunity to compile a list of restaurants, movies, games etc that you would like to have ready for those future nights.

6. Make a playlist for every mood.

Let’s be honest, this quarantine has us feeling all types of ways.

KRIZTELLE: I find myself unmotivated to work on my photography business some days, or feeling sad because I can’t see my mom or sister. I actually find it very comforting to listen to songs that resonate with my mood. It seems counterproductive but whenever I’m sad, sad songs make me feel better. There is no shame in being in tune with your emotions, especially at times like this. Personally, I like taking time to reflect on my emotions and examine why I’m feeling that way and what I can do to make myself feel better. I find that most people try to shove their vulnerable feelings aside and deal with them a later time, which is not healthy at all.

JULIA: I am definitely that person on Instagram that constantly shares songs that I am listening to with absolutely no shame. I started making playlist with all my favorite songs for the month. I updated it every month, taking out songs that no longer spark emotion for me, or sometimes a song will just make it in every month.

7. Start a new show, movie, book etc

Thank you to digital technology! We’ve been blessed to have LOTS of streaming platforms to watch new movies or shows! From Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Video, If you’re up to discussions about the shows that you’re watching, family and friends are a go to. However, not everybody you know shares the same interest. Another outlet for discussions are forums!! Reddit is a great platform when it comes to discussions about EVERYTHING!!

See Julia’s VERY LONG LIST of recommendations attached below!

8. PLAY GAMES!

Playing video games or board games (with family) is a great way to waste some time from work that we have from or at home.

KRIZTELLE: You’ll occasionally find me playing games. However, since I have had a lot of free time during quarantine, I’ve been playing PC games more than ever. Since my company went part-time, after work and on my weeks off, I try to be as productive as I can be especially with practicing my photography and taking online courses to learn more about entrepreneurship to help me grow my small business BUT it gets draining. I found that taking a break from what I consider “work” is necessary because it could drain our energy and for most times, can get us unmotivated and stressed to the point where we’re not working productively anymore. Ideas no longer flowing, find yourself staring at your screen instead of actually doing work.

I started playing PC game with my sister and best friend. Together, we enjoy playing Diablo III and Don’t Start Together. To make gaming more fun, we use either Discord or Facebook Messenger to talk to each other while we play. There are obviously more ways to play games, we just prefer playing on the PC.

Another game that I started playing is Animal Crossing: New Horizons. This game has been the trending topic of all my feed and I was super curious as to what it is. Not owning a Nintendo Switch, my sister lent me hers and I brought the game with my personal account. I’ve been playing for 4 days now and so far so good!!

JULIA: I have been hooked on two games. The first is Lego Harry Potter (or any Lego game), they are a more relaxed gaming style and they follow the stories! The second one is Guild Wars 2. This is another online FREE game to play with your friends/family, if they are interest in a fantasy rpg! Gaming helps me to focus and to relieve some stress!

If you’re interested in playing games, make sure you check out the attached PDF for our list of recommendations!

9. STAY ACTIVE!

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Staying at home may result to less physical activity. We may enjoy the comfort of the couch or bed so much that we forget to stand up, stretch, or do some exercises. It’s super important that we stay active during this down time. Here’s a list of FREE workouts you can do at home!

• Train with Coach Chaca – Stephanny, aka, my sister-in-law is such a BAD ASS fitness coach! She’s been coaching FREE workouts on her Instagram. I love her home workout videos because she’s been using little to no equipment, or use house-objects as substitutes so anybody can follow! Stephanny also goes live on her job’s account every week! So go ahead and follow River North Gym for those lives!

• OrangeTheory at Home – Due to COVID-19, OrangeTheory is currently offering free online classes for all.

• Emi Wong HIIT – she has a lot of amazing workouts on her channel but her HIIT workouts are people’s go-to’s!

Obviously there are more free workout resources out there, these are the three that I’m listing here. If you have great recommendations for people, feel free to comment down below to help others out!

10. Travel!! Virtually of course . . . 😛

Visit a virtual attraction! Technology breaks barriers, allowing us to gawk at beauty art and history from the comfort of our homes. This is actually a great idea if you have a list of places that you want to visit in the future. Scoping out places helps with planning to elaborate on your future trips and gets you more excited for the future! (see recommendations below)

JULIA: This is a chance to have some imaginative fun! Think of your dream vacation and plan it! Sometimes I use google maps street view to see different countries and I look up attractions to I would visit if I was traveling to that destination. It may feel lame, but I believe that it is perfectly fine to dream.

side note: sometimes you can find strange situations in google maps, if you look close enough.

If you made it all the way here, KUDOS TO YOU! We spilled a lot of ideas on things to do with quarantine, keeping in mind that we all have different interests. We understand that some of these things may not interest you, but may interest others. It’s a start if you’re running out of ideas. since we’re a month in to quarantine. We would love to hear from you if you’ve been doing something that isn’t on this list and you think that others might enjoy it as well! We’re all for sharing and caring!