The Perks of Isolation

With so many people cursing social distancing and doing their best to keep the stir craziness away, it’s easy to see the COVID-19 lockdowns as a negative. But there are some upsides to being home all day!

More Family Time

If you’re like me, you’re a workaholic! Many of us are juggling school, work and side hustles, and unfortunately family time falls by the wayside. Now with everyone home, you can take the opportunity to spend quality time with your loved ones.

Board games, movie nights and talks over dinners are just some ways you can reconnected with relatives you haven’t had a chance to really talk to lately. If you have withdrawn family members who are particularly hard to get through to, fun party games like “Would You Rather?” or relaxing spa days might be what gets them to open up. Mix it up and see what everyone likes! You have the time, after all.

More Time to Think

While a lot of us might be isolating with partners, some of us are isolating away from our significant others. By not seeing your partner anymore, you can analyze your relationship from a distance and see if it’s going in the direction you’d like. If it is, you can make plans to help move the relationship forward; if not, you can start working toward fixing the problem, or just step away altogether.

A lot of people – especially introverts – communicate better over text and over the phone, so with everyone forced to forgo face-to-face contact, you can tell your partner how you’re really feeling while still keeping a comfortable distance.

The same goes for friendships and relatives! You won’t get a better time to cut off toxic friends, reach out to cousins you haven’t seen in some time, or finally send that friend request to your high school buddy. If there are people you don’t want in your life any more, or people you want to add to your life, now’s the perfect time to make some changes.

More Time to Be Creative/Learn a Skill

You know that book you were planning on writing? Or that language you were planning on learning? Now that you don’t have commutes to work or date nights anymore, now’s the perfect time to start those projects! This might take some scheduling if you have kids to homeschool or relatives to look after, but if you really want to make the most of your quarantine, then take time to pursue those side projects. You’ll be thanking yourself once you have the finished product.