Goodbye Winter, Hello Spring
How do you make the most of Spring in lockdown? Sophie Jaggers explores five ways to embrace a fresh-start during Covid-19 restrictions.
Spring. Typically a season where we break free of our Winter routines, appreciate our natural surroundings, dodge magpies, anticipate the Summer, and embrace the fresh start this warmer season brings. But how do we fully embrace all this season has to offer when Covid-19 restrictions once again have us stuck inside, parties prohibited, and with little flexibility to refresh our routines? Here are five ways to get the most out of that Spring fresh start – lockdown edition.
Spring clean your study patterns
The online format of this semester’s classes have a lot of us understandably struggling to stay focused. However, it also provides opportunities for adaptable study arrangements. With many lectures now being pre-recorded, study routines have become increasingly flexible, and can cater to a study pattern which better suits your daily routine. Additionally, the time you’d usually spend in the car or on the NUspace shuttle is now yours to command! Find things you enjoy, whether it be baking, writing, calling a friend or exercise, and utilise these to break up the time in front of your screen. While we tend to focus on how much lockdown limits us and our daily choices, it also provides opportunities to refresh our (study) routines in ways we may not have considered accessible.
Rethink your interactions with social media
Spring cleaning doesn’t just only apply to reorganising your wardrobe – decluttering your social media engagement can be equally as calming. As lockdown sees our weekly screen-time hours escalating, our engagement with social media, the accounts we follow and the people we interact with are increasingly impacting our mental health. If you find yourself feeling overwhelmingly negative or drained after your daily scroll it might be time to declutter your feed, or even take a break from social media all together. The time you’d usually spend endlessly scrolling is yours.
Engage with new ideas
While pausing from our regular lives often leaves us feeling static, its also an opportunity to refresh our outlook. Spending more time inside is the perfect opportunity to engage with concepts and ideas you may not regularly interact with in your non-lockdown life. Watch a documentary on something you know nothing about or watch movies and read books from genres you haven’t experienced before. You could even take this a step further and translate these new ideas into skills. Attempt to learn a new language, learn to look after a plant, work at improving a current skill or foster new ones.
Get outside!
This may seem futile at the moment, however although were in lockdown, there are still plenty of ways to take advantage of the warmer weather Spring brings. Find out what walking trails are available in your local area, or enjoy the re-entry of Newcastle beach weather (making sure you follow current NSW Covid-19 restrictions). What outdoor spaces do you have available to you at home? Start up a veggie patch or get your housemates together for some backyard yoga.
Clean up your act
For better or for worse, cleaning is still an activity very much available to us during lockdown. At a time where everything seems very unpredictable and outside of our control, however, having order in our own personal spaces can be a comfort.
Lockdown may seem incompatible with achieving a Spring fresh-start, or it may be exactly the catalyst we needed.
Feature Image by Eva Davies, Yak Designer.
