Even as a kid, I've always enjoyed my own company and found 1000 ways to entertain myself.
But for a lot of people here, self-isolation is a nightmare.
I’ve personally switched to home-office routine around a year ago, after spending over 7 years behind an office desk. Luckily, all my jobs were always very exciting and fun and never a routine (insert here hashtag-blessed).
However, switching to working from home can be really hard even on introverts who are used to have a specific daily schedule that involves communicating and sharing space with several people. You will also feel very disconnected and lonely sometimes, get lazy and unproductive and go crazy at times.
Below lies the list of my “Golden Rules on How to Not Go Cuckoo at Home”. I hope this helps at least 0,0001% of you to survive these self-isolation days without risking your mental health.
1. Gadget-isolation.
Just like we are forced to stay 1-2 meters away from people, make it a habit to fall asleep having your laptop/phone away from you as far as possible. Why? Because eventually you will pick up a nasty habit of reaching out to them and checking emails first thing in the morning
(I am sure you are already scrolling IG religiously before you even open both of your eyes).
2. Stick to your schedule.
If you are used to waking up at 7am before work, then do so. Use your “commute” time as a quality time to kick-off your day. It can be a long bath, books, movies or cooking that awesome breakfast you never had time to do!
3. Home-office.
Going back to the first point, make sure you have a dedicated working space, where your laptop will be based for the next couple of weeks. Make it pretty and comfortable enough for you to enjoy it. Whether it’s candles, plants, fluffy pillows – your work space should be comfortable enough for you to spend there several hours but not cozy enough to get lazy.
4. Lunch breaks.
Always treat yourself for a nice lunch break. Cook food for yourself and set your table. The beauty of having an office routine is being able to disconnect for the short periods of time during smoking breaks or food breaks, which is essential for you not to burn out and feel exhausted at the end of the day. Create these breaks for yourself during the day. Also please don’t smoke, for f*ck’s sake you need your lungs healthy to battle this virus.
5. Meditation.
Stop rolling your eyes. It’s time you make a new habit and start your day by spending several minutes to set your intentions and mood for the day. You can replace your mid-day smoking breaks with a meditation. Trust me, being away from people will soon start driving you crazy.
6. Internet.
Time to change your web-surfing habits. If before you were looking for ways to disconnected once you come back home, now it’s time to fill the void from the lack of communication / knowledge and human interaction. Fill it with good things.
- A lot of celebrities are doing late night tiny-desk concerts at home. Tune in and enjoy their music. I started sharing some on my profile on IG.
- There are many sport classes that are taking place on Instagram or Zoom. Join them!
- Meme accounts are great but it’s time you subscribe to channels that will educate you and give you food for thought
And if you’ve reached till here:
In collaboration with the brightest minds from the top universities in USA, UK, EU and Russia we are working on Coolture project. Stay tuned on instagram.com/becooltured for the highest-quality content and entertainment.
July 18, 2019. I am having a get-together with my
girlfriends. A farewell “Pho Bo”. These get-togethers became a tradition, each
time I pack my suitcase. Our next one is going to be in October but right now I
don’t know about this. I don’t know how long I am going for, what’s my end
destination and what I will be doing exactly.
If somebody told me a year ago that I will leave my comfort
zone and let my inner “vagabond child” run wild and free, I’d probably laugh in
their face. Me? A person who is so pragmatic, strategic about every single
detail in her life, who never goes anywhere without having Plan A, B, C, D, E
& etc?
All these years I’ve scrolled through Social Media accounts
of my “wanderlusted” friends, feeling slightly envious while sitting at my 9am
to ... (whoever says it’s 5 pm is full of bullshit) job and being shy and even
scared to ask for an annual leave. Today I am writing this while sitting on a
very uncomfortable chair, in the desert of Saudi Arabia and experiencing extreme
heat conditions.
I constantly get messages from people who are probably
scrolling my feed in their offices, asking me what do I do for a living and how
come I travel so much. I am not going to dive into details of my professional
background but talk about something else today.
THINGS TRAVELERS DON’T TELL YOU ABOUT.
Life in a suitcase.
Honestly, I cannot remember the last time I had to do my
laundry without rushing to another place. I cannot even remember the last time
I unpacked my suitcase fully. Not to mention ironing. I mean it becomes a norm
and you convince everyone around you and yourself that wrinkled clothing is the
new thing.
Keep your smartie
pants off.
There comes a point where you should stop showing off your
language skills and just accept that you can’t say a word, because eventually
your brain will glitch and you will start saying GRACIAS to people in Italy and
DANKE to people in UAE. Embarrassing.
“You can’t sit with
us”
You don’t have enough time to adapt and integrate into the
culture of the new country you are in. Even worse, once you go back to your
motherland, you feel like you’ve changed too much to fit back in. Accept it,
you are an outcast and your jokes are shit now.
Friends are not that
easy to find.
Yes, you get to meet soooo many people. But what really
warms my heart is being able to see familiar and favourite faces at least once
in a few months and have a heart-to-heart with them. Proper human connection,
when everything around you stops and you have these 3-4 precious hours with a
person you can call your friend, before you have to take off again and run somewhere.
Inability to build a
relationship.
You’re lonely. You’re lonely when you go out. You’re lonely
when you go back to your hotel room. Eventually you stop investing yourself in
meaningless relationships because what’s the point if next week you will be in
a different location. While your friends back home are being able to take their
relationships to a next level, you hug your pillow tight at night, trying to comfort yourself
with a thought: “I am so lucky, I get to see so many things!”
You are everywhere
and nowhere.
My sister started her university – I wasn’t there. My
parents are growing old – I am not there. My friends are celebrating their birthdays,
weddings and other special occasions – I am not there. My best friends need me,
I am not there. And no whatsapp call, no Facetime chat, no voicenote will be
able to fully share with me these precious moments.
Traveling will break you and will make you whole again. You
will cry like a little b*tch on a plane while going through an extreme
turbulence, you will have nervous breakdowns about missed connecting flights
and late taxis, you will grow apart with people back home, you will learn how
to nap anywhere, you will start appreciating small things like soft pillows and
hot tea, you will fall in love with strangers and you will fall in love with
cities. You will fall in love with your new self.
Because nothing evolves you and pushes you further like
traveling. No book, no life coach, no relationship.
Book that flight. x
“To the left, to the left. To the left, to the left.” – as Beyonce sings.
Below lies a story of a person who got shadow-banned by Tinder, was
unmatched several times due to brutal honesty and generally used it for anything
but dating.
This sums up my Tinder experience. Thank you and good luck.
Ever since the launch, I’ve always disliked this app.
Ever since my ex-boyfriend, who loved this app, couldn’t keep it in his pants and proposed an Open Relationship to which I agreed eventually (Concerts, touring, groupies... let’s be honest) because I must’ve really really really loved him and barely loved myself back then.
Ever since my ex-boyfriend, who loved this app, couldn’t keep it in his pants and proposed an Open Relationship to which I agreed eventually (Concerts, touring, groupies... let’s be honest) because I must’ve really really really loved him and barely loved myself back then.
I used to find it snobbish, shallow and everything but an app to
meet people. An app to meet bodies? Probably. An app to fill in the gaps and temporarily escape loneliness? Most definitely.
However, all good things come to an end and I found myself on the “Single”
market again. With a bunch of existential questions in my head about love and
relationships and after spending years working in nightlife / music industries
surrounded by a specific type of men, I hit the ‘download’ button and signed
up for this flesh rollercoaster.
Apart from getting bunch of “hahah!” screenshots from people I know who saw my profile (you guys do realize that you were using the app too, right?),
I was also lucky that in the past 8 months I took over 16 planes so I unwillingly
did some research and made conclusions.
·
You can do a 5-day festival line up based on all the DJ’s and producers
you will find in Berlin in one day.
·
French men are as beautiful as they lie. It’s directly proportional. Give
me these boys when I was innocent and naive and I would probably have the most
beautiful heartbreak.
·
In Lebanon you don’t use Tinder unless you want to find out who is
cheating on who.
·
Forget about “we will share a Pepperoni pizza and drive around on his vespa”
in Rome.
·
In Armenia they will find you in real life if you don’t answer.
·
Georgians are too busy living and enjoying their wine.
·
In Moscow men are so spoiled, that they will tell you how tall, skinny
and smart you have to be. Also add a line in bio that all women are
gold-diggers.
& many many more.
In reality, this application is already extra awkward and you are
meeting under very specific circumstances, so you will most probably have one
of the two following scenarios:
a)
Your date will either be boring as fuck, because they won’t know how to
behave and what to say or be extremely nervous.
b)
Your date will be super awesome and they will be super interesting and
entertaining which will lead you to thinking that they do this often and this
just kills all the vibe.
After going on several dates (didn’t lead to anything), I will
tell you that:
- There are so many interesting people you can meet and conversations you
can have but all the magic disappears once you are facing each other.
- If you are into “natural” things a.k.a searching for feelings, forget
about this app because it kills all the thrill and possible sparks between you
two.
- It’s the easiest way to meet new people if you moved to a new country and
not sure which direction to go once you leave your couch (I HOWEVER NEED FEMALE
FRIENDS IN BERLIN, PLEASE?)
- You need to be honest about what you are looking for. Relationship? One-night
stand? Fuck buddy? Don’t play this game if you get easily hurt.
- It’s a great way to promote an event to foreigners in town or make
business connections (guilty as charged)
Now we all heard about this mysterious friend of a friend who
found their soulmate on this app and got married and lived happily ever after.
I’ve personally never met this “friend” and have a strong feeling that this is
a wonderful marketing myth seeded by the app itself.
And guys, we already have so many apps. Please lock your phone screen,
get brave and come up to that cute stranger on the street. Does more magic,
trust me.
I’ve spent 8 months on the app and I will continue using it only in foreign countries and only when all of my local friends are busy but I feel like hanging out.
