At Barker Realty, we believe how you shelter in place and where you shelter in place can make a big difference for your mental health. Dr. Arthur Kleinman writes in the Wall Street Journal that with a little effort we can transform our home alone time into a chain of life-enhancing rituals that allow us to find and create joy:
“These harrowing times are taking an emotional toll, even on those of us lucky enough to be hunkering down in our own homes. Our new reality—disrupted lives, fears of infection, worries about loved ones, the loneliness that can come with prolonged isolation—brings to the surface disorganizing feelings, from panic to despair, that a busy life might keep at bay. But there are ways to make this period of self-quarantine not only endurable but rewarding.
We can all learn how to endure with purpose and make this a period of emotional and moral transformation. A plague, as Albert Camus knew, is the moment to ask what life is for. The response to Covid-19 suggests one answer: care for yourself and others. So take a breath and take the time to change the daily rituals that makeup life. Throw yourself into them as if your life were at stake, which it is.”
Dr. Kleinman teaches psychiatry, anthropology, and social medicine at Harvard University and is the author, most recently, of “The Soul of Care: The Moral Education of a Husband and a Doctor” (Viking).
How Rituals and Focus Can Turn Isolation Into a Time for Growth
