IF only I could stay at home for a few days,we would sigh, “I could get back my peace of mind!” Imagine, it was just a month ago, similar thoughts filled us with dread: Of an alarm clock that did not drag us out of bed, of hurried breakfasts, sometimes no breakfast and a frenzied journey to the office, and then fireworks from bosses and colleagues!
Today, you don’t have to face all of this, and looks like you won’t for quite some time more, but suddenly, that car or train journey, those irritating colleagues, that boss with blood pressure, are all being missed because at home you feel caged, confined, closed in! Well, here are three tips to find some peace during this quarantine time! First Create Your Own Physical Space!
My parents lived in Brooklyn, in a flat that was just about big enough for both of them, and whenever I visited, I would find it a bit cramped, and felt we were stepping all over each other, till I started physically creating a bit of my own room. I would do silly things like moving a sofa forward, putting a mat behind it, and with my laptop or books for company, found I’d created my own private space.
My daughter, who initially moved to a small flat in Manhattan later, laughed as I did the same thing but later realized that her dad and she and her husband also found this demarcation quite sensible. Second Create Your Own Boundaries! “You mean build walls, with furniture again Bob?” you ask with a smile.
“No, mental boundaries, where either someone’s bad moods, sulks, behavior or insults, won’t affect you. To build these boundaries requires that it is you who needs to become more understanding, both in terms of what the other person is feeling and also asking yourself, whether it’s worth adding more fuel to an already stifling atmospheric fire by igniting it further.
Build boundaries around your own temper, around your greed, and around all the impulses that the outside, competitive world has ingrained in you. This is not the outside wild woods. This is family. Third, Build Bridges!
Oh yes, this is a glorious time to become a master builder in reaching out! Stretch out over troubled waters and understand. Stretch out and shoulder a burden. Stretch out and comfort. If you look at old bridges, you will see they are held up by arches. Arches had stones meshed into each other, till right at the top, to hold the lower stones tightly in place was the corner stone.
That stone held the arch and the arch held the bridge. So, be the corner stone during this quarantine time; hold the family bridge of love together. DARE try out these three tips, of space, boundaries and bridges and create a peaceful quarantine atmosphere at home..!
