You may be stuck indoors due to weather or the latest flu and cold season, but it doesn’t have to be a claustrophobic experience. On the contrary, it could be an opportunity to go places and do things that make you more content that ever.
The Road Less Traveled
One of the best strategies in life is turning everything, including the bad and the ugly, in your favor. There are valuable gold nuggets in every scenario. So, if you are temporarily confined, turn your frustration into opportunity.
I get the frustration. I am used to a fast rhythm that entangles me with the outside world. I typically spin several plates at a time. In business especially, downtime is bad. When there is a pause or a lull, there is discomfort. I get antsy if I am not pressed by to-dos. Then comes the worry and self-doubt, as if the world will decide to move on without me.
Being confined due to force majeure is distinct. Staying indoors in such cases is an act of responsibility, and should be seen and reacted to differently. The situation requires acceptance and surrender, which may at first feel helpless but is actually a position of empowerment. Life’s usual noise gets quieter, leaving you with a more pronounced version of you.
This opportunity is so potent that some find being alone or confined terrifying. Maybe it’s because we examine ourselves or hear the truth that is in our heart. If it is a chance for real truth and discovery, then why is it so uncomfortable for so many people? Why isn’t being with ourselves more satisfying?
Use this rare and valuable time to deepen your connections, to open your heart, and to listen to the inner voice that is usually drowned out by the outside world and its tasks. Get to know yourself again and rediscover your family. Be honest about your relationship with the world and I guarantee you will get inspired. You now have the time and space for it; how often does that happen?
Strengthen the connections in your life that cause fulfillment — with yourself, your loved ones, and the world.
Create a sanctuary of creativity during this time because when the doors open and you are released back into the fast-paced, swirling, chaotic world, you will likely be swept away by another agenda.
Activities That Make Inroads
Don’t just grab your iPhone or binge-watch YouTube. Those activities are unfulfilling distractions, which is why we first can’t get enough of them, then get bored by them. Don’t distract; instead, connect.
How do you connect? It requires less of the mind and more of the heart, so activities that encourage creativity and deep-rooted reflection will do the trick!
1. Journal your experience. Write about your frustration. Why do you want to go out, and why don’t you want to stay in? Write about your observations. What new things do you see in your home? What new behaviors do you see in others? Look out the window and write how you see the world from your current perspective — the good and the ugly. Break out of the confines of the routine you had before and expand into a bigger world by using your cloister. Ironic, huh?
2. Listen to music — not for the sake of filling the air with distracting sound, but to let your spirit out. Here’s your chance. Don’t limit yourself with a foot-tap. Set yourself free! Move about your home, dance into all four corners of the room, let your spirit express itself through your body, and let your body express itself throughout your entire space! If you are with family, hold a dance contest or an old-fashioned sock-hop. Consider the joy Tom Cruise in “Risky Business” made for himself and millions more through expressive dance. That’s the power of freedom of expression through music and play! Dance until hair is mussed and cheeks are flushed, and don’t forget to use household items as musical props.
Emancipate yourself and your family using music, before you get back into the boundaries of society!
3. Play and create. Play is the purest form of love because it fosters appreciation for people as they really are. The more playful things get, the more real you are! Use a coloring book to relax into your creative flow or play a board game and use your outdoor voice indoors. Create imaginative characters and use each other’s wardrobe to piece together costumes. Take turns reading to each other with dramatic flair, or pick written questions from a bowl. Imagine how, if you had super powers, you would solve big problems. Play hard to think big and be bigger.
Take any image or a photograph and use your imagination to travel into it. Create a world, hear its sounds and interact with amazing characters. Imaginovate yourself into a wondrous, caring, and playful dimension. A new reality is just a thought away, so experiment with fantastically better experiences. This process will improve your perspective, provide entertainment, and blow out the walls of your cloister.
Let go of what society might think of you as you slide across your room or journal your frustrations. If you are staying home, you are being socially responsible. Other than that, what you do in the privacy of your home is no one else’s business. This is your secret pea pod and your bat cave. In it, you are free to be without judgment. Until you are released back into the zany-crazy population outside, enjoy the vastness of your soul.