Best ways to spend your time during Enhanced Community Quarantine!

Photo by Paige Cody on Unsplash Make the most out of your time during the isolation. Take advantage of social distancing and enhanced community quarantine to be better. In my country (the Philippines — I feel like I need to let you know) everyone is in chaos. Almost everyone. Many people don’t have work, businesses are closed, no public transport at all and struggles are real in buying meds and groceries. Goods given by the government don’t usually fit the family needs for a day and they’re arguing whether to provide help to the middle class or not and so on. A lot of things are going on and it’s very taxing. I’m not up to date with the news about the coronavirus thing and I feel like I had to limit my knowledge about it because I’m sure it’s gonna be stressful. But to those people who are seeing the news and feeling stressed about the current situation they have(or whatever is happening around), I have something to share with you today. Stop stressing it won't help! I know it’s hard for some people to keep up with social distancing but I’m a believer of that solution for real. It’s terrible not to be able to get to work and get paid but we have to do this to isolate our selves from getting the virus. It’s very contagious you know, and very deadly. I’m sure you know. Instead of worrying that one day you won’t be able to buy bread anymore, take this time to your advantage for self-improvement. For the betterment of yourself and to be healthy. Your worries can be much worse than the coronavirus if you embraced them. If you’re really worried about how to live this enhanced community lockdown, start buying seeds of vegetables and grow them now. Panic buying sucks It’s sad that people are panic buying without realizing that there are others who struggled on their way to the grocery but ended up seeing empty shelves because of the greedy ones. Stop buying unnecessary things, like getting a high-quality, fancy and expensive cereal (if there’s such thing). Just buy the regular ones — you really need to save your money now. Unless you’re super-rich that you can live your entire life without work. We don’t know when it will be over but we need to be positive. Again we need to take advantage of our time at home and still become productive. Better things to do while staying at home Now is your chance to learn new skills for career advancement, self-improvement or whatever. You might not know, maybe you’ll discover something more enjoyable to do, that you can make money with while you're at home. There are several ways to learn valuable skills at home for FREE. Here are the 5 sites or apps that I am using to learn, learn, learn. 1. Podcast App — make it a habit to listen to educational and motivational podcasts daily, as there are many podcasters who provide very good content and I’m sure you’ll learn a lot from them. I gained some good perspective in life by listening to podcasts while breastfeeding, cooking and even while taking a bath. It’s absolutely free, if you use iPhone then you have the built-in app already for Android users, you can use Spotify, Stitcher and Google Podcast. 2. Coursera.org — not everyone knows that you can view almost any course at coursera.org for free. Technically their paid version is only for getting certificates and access to quizzes and assignments. But you can learn many skills as you can for free by auditing the course. Another option is applying for financial aid, which can take a while for approval. Having financial aid allows you to gain access to quizzes, assignments, and certificates. What I did before is to audit the course while waiting for the financial aid approval which is totally fine. To Audit a course on Coursera 3. Skillshare — this is technically a paid one but for Skillshare and Scribd, I’ll share you the link to gain access for 60 days free. You can learn and keep using it for free by sharing your own links to others to earn 30 days more. That’s why you need to use my link so I can continue learning for 30 days more too. Skillshare is also a place that offers online courses, mainly for creative skills like graphic designs, writing, illustrations and more. You can get the trial for 60 days here. 4. Scribd — So far I love spending my free time on Scribd. They have lots of things to offer. They have books, audiobooks, snapshots(similar to Blinkist), magazines and more. While working I tend to listen to either podcasts or audiobooks. I find their available books to be better than Kindle Unlimited, the only downside is I cannot read them on kindle paperwhite. Many top-selling books are available there. I’ve been listening and reading books about digital marketing, financial education, and self-improvement books. I find these books to be very helpful. Scribd — Unlimited Ebooks, audiobooks and more. You can access this for 60 days free, just like Skillshare by using this link. Aside from learning, keep moving! You can’t commute to work anymore? Can’t do your morning walk or run? You probably feel like getting fat already or stiff because of the lack of movements. Keep yourself moving by doing these: Join the hype on Tiktok — this platform encourages everyone to dance and play with the music and effects that they have in their app. They create challenges, games and a lot more. We’re using it as a family. We attempted to do the dance challenges that gave us sweat and family bonding. Although we don't publish them all the time, we're just having fun. You can check us out at @xmiely__. Do yoga — well you can do any exercises but did you know that yoga promotes a boost in the immune system? Yes, it does and it’s very important that we strengthen our immunity to avoid getting sick. You can view guides on youtube for this or take advantage of the current(only until May 1st) free service of the DownDog App. I personally use the DailyYoga App because I've been subscribed there for a while and because they also have meditations on top of Yoga classes. Do activities that can keep you mindful Your brain can be stagnant when you don't exercise it that much. While staying at home, you may not have many activities for your mind. The two things you can do to be mindful is to journal and meditate. Give yourself some time to reflect and be grateful for the life, the good health and the family that you still have. Not everyone is in a good position right now so be thankful for whatever you have right now. We may think that the havoc that the world is experiencing right now is the wrath of God, but if you'll take a look at the other side of it you'll realize that this time is giving us a challenge to be away from many things and to savor being near with our family and loved ones. You may not notice that before you were eating lunch with workmates or sometimes just by yourself but now you're having lunch with your family. Stay safe everyone!