Life right now

Life right now has been weird on so many levels. The ups and downs of quarantine are much more intense than I remembered them before. Some days you wake up feeling great, you get super productive and feel grateful for all that you have. Other days, I miss my family and friends, want to eat all the chocolate and can just lay down staring at the ceiling for a while. 

I guess this period of time at home is really testing me, making me look inside and reflect on my life, on the things that make me happy. Since moving to New York, I changed many habits, gave up on a few and acquired some more. So here is a list of little habits or "things" that are making life right now positive for me:

1. Yoga in the mornings

I had tried yoga a couple of times back in Brazil and thought it wasn't for me. I though it was too hard, I wasn't flexible enough, I wasn't strong enough. These bad experiences made me give up. But when I joined the gym near by and saw they had Yoga classes, I though I would give it another try. And no, I wasn't stronger or more flexible than before, but I think my mind was in a better place to accept these things about myself. Being kind to yourself is something that I still struggle a lot with, but I think I getting better at it everyday. When quarantine began, I started doing even more yoga at home, watching YouTube classes and seeing the results from day to day. It has had a huge impact on how I feel and how I start my day.

2. Reading

I've been an avid reader since my teenage years, and since being locked up at home, I am reading so much more. At least 2 hours of my day are going into it, mostly in the evenings before going to sleep. I though now would be the perfect time to tackle a huge epic Fantasy series with lots of characters, plots, maps and family trees. It's the best thing to keep my mind off of the strange reality we are living in.

3. Cooking

In the past 2 months of staying home, we ordered food just a couple of times. I am doing all the cooking for me and my husband everyday. It's not like I do everything from scratch, Trader Joe's frozen foods have been a life saver most days and of course, our favorite meal ever: pasta. But I really love to cook, I like planning our meals in advance and eating whatever I came up with that day.

4. Going outside

Thankfully where we live we can go outside to exercise and get some fresh air. I've been going out once a week to one of the parks we have near by and it's been the most wonderful thing to walk around and lay down in the grass, just soaking in the sunlight as the days get warmer. We always wear masks, don't get close to other people and make sure not to touch anything.

5. Connecting with friends and family

Since this all started I have felt closer than ever to my friends and family. We've been talking on FaceTime so much more than before, always talking on WhatsApp and sending pictures of our meals back and forth. Happy Hours with our friends are so much fun and we even started working out together! Doing yoga in the morning together with my wonderful friend Rafa is the perfect way to start the day (I am so proud of us for keeping it up for so many weeks now)!

I'm not going to lie, I'm a little bit scared of the "reopening". First I am afraid that COVID-19 cases will go up again and we have to shut down again.. but also, I am kind of enjoying this new routine of mine. I'm scared that when things go back to "normal", I won't find the time to do yoga, or cook, or read. I have to believe that we will find a new "new normal" once this is over and that it will be just as good. The truth is that we underestimate our ability to adapt and we are much stronger than we think! 

I know I will come out of this stronger, and I hope you will too.