Throughout the pandemic and now during the wildfires of the West Coast, I hear time and again about people struggling with being stuck at home. This is an interesting concept to explore because “being stuck at home” can mean something different for each person. For me, it is a feeling of pausing everything in life to shift the energy of the day into a different realm. Whatever I was supposed to be doing has ceased, and now I am here in my body, in this home – pausing. As someone who can easily fill up my day with projects, tasks, social activities, exercise and events – having to pause all of these things to simply be is a gift. Yes, I am aware I make the choice to do these things and I could easily choose to not do them. Perhaps that is part of my pandemic lesson, to do less.
For others, “being stuck at home” is some level of torture. I think of it as a scale of torture, from tolerable to intolerable torture. It can feel confining, boring, isolating, restrictive, lacking. For some there might be a desire to need something beyond what is in your home and that could be in the form of food or buying other things. This could be one way of passing the time. Have you asked yourself if you have gone to the grocery store more or less during Covid? How full is your pantry? Do you really need to go out for the next trip?
I knew a family that every November set a goal of eating everything in their home. Not grocery shopping, simply living on what they had. In the U.S. there is a need to keep items stocked up but do we really need those items?
During my time at home, I have definitely experienced a “boredom moment” whereby I head to the frig looking for a snack or treat, anything to fill the time but not actually fill my hunger. Have you experienced that? Are you aware in the moment? Or maybe the day after when your stomach hurts from eating crap the day before.
Whether you feel stuck at home or enjoying being at home, it is a good time to take stock of your awareness of how you are feeling. Check in with yourself to see how you are feeling, what you are feeling, where in your body you are feeling it and go deeper – why are you feeling stuck or free?