To be honest it has been a minute since I've done a blogpost.
Let's be real I moved to YouTube and Instagram and somehow shopaholicsharika.com got left behind. But let that be water under the bridge and this is a reset.
So quarantine has been hard, I'm not going to lie. Initially, the first week I was okay being at home all the time; but as the few weeks have now turned into a few months. There is a lot I realized.
Baking and Cooking helped with my mental health.
I'm not saying I didn't bake and cook before this but I realized that I enjoy the process of getting ingredients and coming up with my takes on recipes that I see. I like that there is a process from start to finish and there are set instructions, for example, if you add 1 tsp of baking soda into cookie dough it helps in baking. (That was random.) But yeah, the certainty is calming. Every time I am anxious, I start to cook and bake while listening to music and it calms me down for a while.
Eating Clean and working out has been a new experience.
Another method of journaling that I started doing is writing a letter to the next person I fall in love with. Yes, that is a more hopeless romantic side of me than anything else but here's the thing... it makes me optimistic about the future. It makes me smile that there is a way I am documenting all the stories I would want to tell him when I actually meet him and fall in love. (I just realized yesterday that the soy sauce I use had gluten). But eating clean is a fun experiment because I can challenge myself to come up with new recipes so that I don't make eating boring and slip back into old habits.
As for working out, I have had an on-again and off-again relationship with the gym the last couple of years, but since the quarantine started after two weeks of feeling meh I started doing yoga and now I have started the Chloe Ting challenge. But even with just yoga every day, I have noticed my body tone up.
There's still a lot of work that needs to be done, but taking the initiative is the first step right?
Organizing my stuff has led me to try and consume less.
I just spent the entire day changing my closet from winter and spring pieces to summer and I realized that I could probably survive to be more conscious about my clothes purchases. I'm not saying it will be easy but if I stop aimlessly going into stores and purchasing pieces that "I'll wear on my next holiday" or on my next Instagram post; I might even enjoy the retail experience again.
So maybe if I am more mindful about buying clothes and makeup, I might be able to save more to travel (whenever that happens again) and experience things more. The quarantine has led me to realize that if I even chopped my consumption to 70 percent, it would be a good start.
Journaling is a good source of release.
Just before I sat down to write this, I realized something that I was really hoping was not to be true, but I wrote it out into my journal and it was cathartic and I can move on from it. Journaling and writing things has brought a lot more clarity to the constant storm that is going on in my head.
Another method of journaling that I started doing is writing a letter to the next person I fall in love with. Yes, that is a more hopeless romantic side of me than anything else but here's the thing... it makes me optimistic about the future. It makes me smile that there is an old school way I am documenting all the stories I would want to tell him when I actually meet him and fall in love.
I feel like it's the little things right now that make me smile and help me keep going, because the reality is scary to say the least.
So I hope what you take away you take from this is do the little things... try that new recipe or hobby and stay safe.