The first week of self quarantine I moved all the furniture in my bedroom. I am delighted with the new set up. That was also, coincidentally, the same week our brand new couch came in. Once my living room and bedroom changed, I ran out of things to fix… but not things to create.

I’ve spoken before about how to stay calm now and find the positive during this challenging time, and I’m committed to making this self quarantine a space of rediscovering the things that once brought me joy and moving all of my passion projects forward.

This can be an amazing gift and time to declutter our homes and minds, find inspiration again and infuse our passions with massive action! Here are a few ways that I am making use of this time to be creative, connect with my husband and be grounded in the person I am… The person I ignored in the minutia of day-to-day life. I’d be willing to bet, you may have been ignoring yourself in some way in the routine of what life was pre-pandemic. Although there are a lot of challenging and sad things going on in the world, I’d like to shift our focus to the collective experience we are having as a planet. We are all coming home to ourselves and what truly matters.

 

DAILY PORCH HAPPY HOURS

Beer o’clock has become an every day occurrence in our house. However, what makes this ritual so special is not to be adult beverage (although that helps), it’s the commitment we have every day no matter what to sit on the porch for at least an hour and talk to each other. If you are more into tea or coffee, this could give you the same peace of mind. As a matter fact, spending time in our porch made me give it a spring cleaning, in addition to cutting our grass. We may or may not have been those people who let our grass grow into a mini forest because we were so consumed with everything going on inside our house (and minds). Who knew that physically spending time enjoying the outside of our home would give us a ton of ideas on ways to enhance it… Something that had fallen woefully to the bottom of our to-do list.

 

SPRING MUSIC JAR

This is an idea I stole from A Beautiful Mess Blog. And it’s genius. We wrote down as many artists as there are weeks in Spring, put the names of the bands in a jar, and each week we pick a new one to listen to at random. Both Jaime and I chose artists and bands across generations and genres. The idea is to experience different types of music. Listening to one artist for an entire week has been so fun and educational. There are so many songs I wasn’t aware certain artists sang. A music jar is a great way to expand your musical horizons. Hooray for the music jar… We might keep this one post-covid as well.

 

WEEKLY FRIDAY DATE NIGHT

So we can’t go out, but that doesn’t mean we can’t have a date night. Our date night is in our dining room table every Friday, we have been committed to choosing a fun meal and something to do. Believe it or not, we have not run out of fun things we can create or experience together at home. We take turns every week, and each week gives us the opportunity to get in touch and share the things that bring us joy. For example, on our first date night I chose two short films for us to watch after we ate a dinner Jaime prepared at the table. It’s been years since I gave my love of film any attention. And it was really beautiful to be reacquainted with that part of me, not to mention all the inspiration I got from experiencing a different type of art.

 

TIME IN NATURE

This may or not be an option depending on where you live. Luckily for us, we live in a place that is full of options to experience nature while observing social distancing. Although many of our parks and forests have closed, there are still plenty of trails available to explore. Also, something as simple as spending time in our yard, porch or balcony will suffice if need be. Nature is one of the reasons we moved to the Smoky Mountains. My absolute favorite thing about nature is how it teaches me.

Nature doesn’t need anything. It simply is. I believe that we are the same way, only we get lost in our daily life and forget that we already are and have everything that we need right now. Fresh air in my lungs and absolutely stunning views of the Smoky Mountains don’t hurt either.

What are you doing at home to stay sane and creative during this time? Please let me know in the comments below…