Hi everyone. Good afternoon. Adel’s here.
It’s usually the time when I drop a monthly update for you guys to read, but since the whole pandemic situation is not getting any better (worse if I may say), I feel like typing out the same thing will be repetitive and boring so, I will try to share some tips on how I stay sane during this quarantine period. I might be going MIA from July to August and be back with a new post on September since exam is coming in and I’m nowhere close to being ready. So, to wrap it up shortly, June has been filled with stress so far. The main agenda to do every day is study and fight the urge to not exercise (and study). Hahaha, ehm . . . the struggle is real. On a more serious note, my university has started an online “crash course” to help us prep for the upcoming board exam and it has been very helpful, at least for me. I kinda have to stop baking and cooking tho since time is not that flexible anymore and I am not the kind of person that can study for 6-7 hours straight without a break so adios to having home baked sweets for a while. My eating pattern and sleep schedule are slowly trembling down. The insomnia is not getting better at all but I am grateful that the night terrors and/or nightmares are not popping up as often as they used to. My stomach has been very dramatic to say the least, leading to me having an excuse to eat more than I used to. I could wake up feeling so nauseous. It would stay for couple hours before being completely fine in the afternoon. Then when I’m studying at night, it would cramp like crazy and then I entered two to three days of massive diarrhea episodes. After that, it will be okay for two to three days before starting its crazy cycle again. I don’t change my diet at all during quarantine (okay, maybe a bit more home baked goods) so the only thing to blame is my stress level. I am almost 100% convinced I had IBS (Irritable Bowel Syndrome) type D but that’s another thing to take care of after I finish my exam. What else can I tell you . . . ?! Ow, I got myself tested for COVID-19 and it came back as negative. Well, I did a Rapid Test so it should be non-reactive. If you don’t believe in the efficacy of staying home, take me as an example. If only, people who had the luxury of staying home, really stay at home, the whole situation might not be very severe like now. Anyways, I take the test actually to fulfill one of SIKM requirement and I’m glad to announce that I have gained the permit to travel back to Jakarta #happydance. That’s June for me. Now, let’s get into the main topic which is my strategy of staying sane during these challenging times.
First, creating a new flow. I know I know, this can sound a bit cliché or too much work to do. Honestly, I had the same thought. I remembered telling myself that it’s a great opportunity to just relax and enjoy some less stressful time, to let the body heal and adapt back to its normal state. So, for the first two to three weeks, I just let my body did what it wanted to do; woke up late (10 or 11 AM) almost every day, exercised at 9/10 PM, pampered myself, did my nails and all that jazz . . . But, when I entered week 4, things didn’t feel right. I found myself missing a routine; dare I say, I miss having the obligation of waking up at 5 AM. I crave for a well-scheduled day, of knowing how the whole week is going to be like. I even flirted with the idea of creating a bullet journal but since I know me, that whole idea wouldn’t stay effective and efficient for long so I chose to do it by adding the things I have to do to my calendar, especially the important ones like setting a date for the second Half Hearted Gypsy book launch, deadlines of my articles and study goals for the week. I even sometimes added my gym schedule, just to see whether there’s anything else I can do that day to make it fun and not monotone or to see whether I can push some things to tomorrow if I really don’t feel like doing it that day. And so far so good.
Second, planning breakfast. If you know me, food has always been a big part of my life. But back when things were crazy and hectic, I didn’t put much thought to what I eat that day. The goal was to keep me from craving something sweet that contains high calories but not fulfilling and most importantly, to keep me from experiencing hypoglycemia (Oh boy, I had some episodes on that and it’s not as fun as you might think. The headache was quite something). Moreover, cause I’m in a very strict diet -I can only eat 1000 calories per day- I gravitated to something quick, fast and simple such as ice black coffee + skim milk or omelets or oatmeal. That has been my breakfast options for more than a year. However, since time is slowing down now, I have the chance to do research of more healthy low calories breakfast ideas. Instead of wheat bread, I realized I could eat pandan bread, kaya bread and sourdough bread. I also discovered a great banana pancake recipe that miraculously was below 250 calories. Then, I also found out that I could eat cereals like Coco Crunch, Milo, Corn flakes, as long as I stayed within the serving size. So, there’s a lot of thing I could eat for under 250 calories. Having a lot of options to choose from is actually quite exciting. When I go to bed, I look forward to the next day, knowing I can eat something I love even from early morning.
Third, rekindling and/or creating new friendship. As we grow older, it’s getting harder and harder to find “friends”. With our priorities shifting every now and then, we are most likely to push the need of broadening our friendship circle, especially if it takes a lot of effort for you to do so (I feel you introverts, I do). Or even if you’re working in hospitality field, the relationship that happened was majorly formal and for business purposes rather than pure friendship. And you know what they say, it’s best to not mix pleasure and business together. So, I suggest you to take the time now to foster new connection and/or reconnect with those who you might accidentally neglected and left hanging back there. This is the perfect opportunity to settle things down and catch up with each other lives. Of course, there might be a possibility of you being ghosted (I have a fair share on being ghosted so yeah I know how it feels) but hey, good intentions will take you somewhere great so why don’t you do that? Who knows it might even open up for another reunion that leads to something amazing in the future. Plus, having someone to talk to other than your boss during Work-From-Home period can be relaxing and calming. Speaking from experience, I find a great companion who I can share my thoughts with during these times and it has been lovely so far. I learnt a lot from him and knowing that I have someone to talk to although virtually, makes me feel like I’m living a “normal” life, if that makes any sense. If you like to see faces, you can try video calling or organize a gathering via Zoom. Basically, you can try anything to keep yourself and help your friends stay sane. #wink
Fourth, learn new things. Another activity I find very helpful to pass the day is enriching yourself with adequate knowledge and information regarding things that are happening nowadays. You don’t have to start with something so “foreign” like black live matters (I mean you can but just make sure you have a proper understanding regarding the whole situation before you start stating your opinions) From my perspective, it’s best to start learning a topic that has drawn your attention for quite some time. In my case, that would be about self-love and self-development. With the amount of time I have now, I start allocating some time to reading the books I have stored in my e-library for years. Some of my favorites are Ikigai by Albert Lievermann and Hector Garcia, The Courage to Be Disliked by Fumitake Koga and Ichiro Kishimi, the continuation from a classic well-known book Everything is F*cked by Mark Manson and my new favorite The More of Less by Joshua Becker. Recently, I got reconnected with someone who adapt a minimalistic lifestyle for years. He managed to convince me to read more about it. After talking and hearing his side of the stories (plus, boredom strikes even harder when you can’t sleep in the middle of the night) I decided to dwell into the topic and man I didn’t regret it. Reading people’s stories about their way of living minimally was so inspiring. I even managed to declutter my wardrobe and like Marie Kondo once said, it does spark joy #wink. Other than that, I read and re-read some of my favorite poem collections. But, if you’re not into reading, you can try watching videos. For me, I’ve been enjoying Matt D’Avella videos. He has the kind of voice that soothes your soul and eases your mind. Moreover, he has a way of delivering a message that is “unique”. His videos are not too long, approximately around 10-20 minutes so it won’t take too much time to watch a video. On top of that, you get to see a glimpse of his house that aesthetic is on point. It’s so neat and well organized too, inspiring me to re-prioritize things in my life and stop hoarding. “What I eat in a day or week” videos has also been fun to watch in between study sessions as well. Or, another alternative if you are tired of looking at your laptop all day is audiobooks or podcasts. I have been catching up with Baper Podcast by Raynald Andreas (@enolandreas) and Andre Anthony (@andre_anthony). It’s in Bahasa tho so if you’re not comfortable with it, you can try others but sorry to say, I have no recommendations on this.
And that’s all for today.
I hope it can inspire you to try new things and even if you have already tried them all out and still are feeling you’re going nuts anytime soon, know you’re not alone.
We’re all in this together.
And till this pandemic is over, I won’t be tired to remind my friends to stay at home if you can, stay healthy, stay safe and keep a safe distance.
I’ll greet you very very soon; hopefully with a happy heart of feeling content and free of exam.
Till then, keep yourself sane and productive as comfortable as you can!
Love, always and forever,
Genoveva Verena Adella 🥀
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