Thriving at Home

THRIVING AT HOME by Nasiba

In current emergency situations like pandemy, people have no choice but to stay at home for the sake of themselves and their surroundings. While some individuals find it stressful, others are enjoying the moment of isolation. How this phenomenon affects different personas and how to thrive in social isolation and make your home the best place to live in? In this article we will basically elaborate how to thrive at home and what can help you to make your place the most wonderful to spend your time.

THE IMPORTANCE OF HOME

As a human being, we all need a shelter and a place, that we call home. A place, which keeps us secure, private and gives a feeling of belonging and identity. A lecturer at Simon Fraser University in Vancouver, Canada, identifies four main elements, that adds the significance on people’s perceptions of their homes, old people in particular. The first factor is the emotional attachment. Since the childhood, we have been collecting memories, that finally stuck in our mind and give warm feelings, emotional associations to the place, where we were born and spent our early years and pre-adulthood life. The second is familiarity with physical ambience and sounds in t he house. One can readily recognize sounds, that belong to his house, smells and sense of touch. The third element is about knowing your neighbors and being comfortable with your neighborhood. The last factor is the most vital aspect, which is about sense of identity. There is a deep and strong emotional connection between our homes and us, as we see our homes as a place for an emotional escape. At the end of the long working day, we all want to go home and recharge our batteries. These are the reasons why human beings give such a tremendous significance to their homes. Thus, when building a house and decorating it, people try to convey their identities and personalities, by creating a cozy atmosphere which will bring you a pleasure when returning home at the end of the day.

HOW ISOLATION AFFECTS DIFFERENT PERSONAS?

Firstly, isolation limits the space, but not the opportunity. Due to different characteristics of people, everyone accepts the isolation in different ways. Apparently, from a psychological point of view, there are 3 group of people - introverts, extroverts and ambiverts. People, who initially prefered to be socially passive and avoid too crowded places, like introverts, actually enjoy being at home and find it as an outstanding opportunity to do things, that they could not do before on account of active social life. Nevertheless, they also have to maintain their social well-being and keep balance by making calls and socializing online, or it can lead to negative effects. Meanwhile, extroverts, who tend to be sociable and can’t make it without active lifestyle, might have mental issues and stress as a result of lack of communication. Apparently, they are undergoing more challenges than other types of personalities. However, they need to go beyond social networks and Zoom parties, and do sports, dance or have a short walk, otherwise it might also end up with being overwhelmed, so it is always a good idea to set up some restrictions and limits to pace yourself. Ambiverts, on the other hand, are people in between. However, with the contemporary opportunities of technology, people are still having parties online on Zoom, they still celebrate birthdays online, the way of socializing has been altered and adapted to current times. The world now realizes that we did not actually need most of the things before, and now once people carry out meetings, parties, even fashion shows online, the life is never going to be the same as it was months ago. face during staying home is the presence of other people in the house. There are couples, families and roommates sharing the same house. It might be challenging for an extrovert to reside with an introvert and vice versa. A recent study by American Psychological Association says that both introverts and extroverts felt better after having active virtual social behavior during the week. As well as this, for those who share a living space with others, it is suggested to come to compromises and divide a certain amount of time for daily social life and personal time for yourself. The survey done by Washington Post (2020) reports that couples tried to mitigate these discrepancies in social demeanour by allocating day time and allowing an extroverted partner to be loud and do social activities during the day, while in the evening they could spend time together, thus avoiding extra arguments between each other.

Another common issue that many personalities

There is a widespread trend on social networks going nowadays, where everybody shares pictures of themselves spending these days productively, by doing sport, cooking, reading books and staying active. However, this fake productivity and image of a perfect isolation can make some people stressful, it’s up to a person whether to be productive and do what society tells us to do, or sleep and snack all around the day. People blame those “active” bloggers, that they make people’s self-esteem lower and make them feel guilty every time when they are wasting their time sitting on sofa. This social pressure, where everybody is having online courses and doing sport, one feels himself guilty for not being like others. Not everybody has to follow social rules and everyone has his own way of enjoying isolation and there is not a sole formula for that. Thus, it depends on an individual’s personality, his preferences and tastes.

HOW TO MAKE YOUR HOME THE BEST PLACE TO THRIVE?

There are several factors, that might affect your mood during social isolation at home and accordingly, there are certain ways of solving out these problems. Certainly, following suggestions may not be applicable to each personality, because there is not a sole formula for that and everybody decides on his own, but these ideas might reach out to those, who still assume that being locked at home is the most stressful thing in their lives. The light, design, color palette and amount of space in your home can be huge triggers of your different moods. Above all, home is not just a place, where you sleep and spend your spare hours, it is indeed part of self-definition. People and their homes are connected, our homes are actually reflections of our inner world, that is why our mood and motivation throughout a day depends on the ambience that we create at our places.

In order to make a perfect space, which will inspire you and affect your mood positively, there are certain things to consider. Getting rid of things, that you no longer use, might be a great idea even from a psychological point of view. Storing up old packagings, boxes or useless souvenirs will supplant a space. By throwing away or donating old things, that you no longer need, you will open new doors and opportunities for new things to come into your life. That can be organizing your closet and doing away with pieces, that you no longer wear, or organize your kitchen and spa space. Thus, organizing every shelf and room to make a clear order will help a lot to organize your inner mind as well. Once our surroundings are clearly organized, it impacts our personality and you start being more organized as well. You can also practise that on your social media accounts, by unfollowing and muting accounts, that are spoiling your feed and just leave those pages, that you really show interest to. Color also plays a crucial role. It’s important to keep your furniture and other details in a house look harmonious in terms of color, as it’s known, many stress cases are recorded due to spending much time in spaces with intense or contrast colors. Colors can be provokers of bad mood and depression, so surround yourself with calm colors. Paint your walls in more minimal, aspiring shades, according to your preferences, make sure that the overall image of the house goes well in harmony all together. Sometimes being surrounded by same colors can be tedious, in this case try to change what surrounds you and do not be afraid to experiment. It is obvious that mundane ambience in the house will impact on your productivity, meaning that you need some changes. For example, relocating the furniture will bring the difference and some update into your home design.

Art is also another therapy while staying socially isolated at home. Hanging art pieces, like pictures can be an idea for decorating your house and bringing you a bunch of positive vibes. Even if you are bad at art and can not draw, according to studies, drawing is known as one of the most effective stress killers and sedatives. There are many options nowadays, where you may draw without any basic skills, like painting the picture by numbers. Many find it as a stress revealing and calm therapy, on top of that, you realize you may draw without any talent or being gifted.

It goes without saying that sport is the common stress killer and source of motivation, good spirit and healthy mind. It could be challenging to get motivated for doing sport in the beginning, however, it is proved to be one of the most effective ways to spend your time at home. Doing sport does not necessarily requires special equipment, there are plenty of online tutorials, where you can do daily activities at home, including pilates, yoga and simple gymnastics.

Art is also another therapy while staying socially isolated at home. Hanging art pieces, like pictures can be an idea for decorating your house and bringing you a bunch of positive vibes. Even if you are bad at art and can not draw, according to studies, drawing is known as one of the most effective stress killers and sedatives. There are many options nowadays, where you may draw without any basic skills, like painting the picture by numbers. Many find it as a stress revealing and calm therapy, on top of that, you realize you may draw without any talent or being gifted. It goes without saying that sport is the common stress killer and source of motivation, good spirit and healthy mind. It could be challenging to get motivated for doing sport in the beginning, however, it is proved to be one of the most effective ways to spend your time at home. Doing sport does not necessarily requires special equipment, there are plenty of online tutorials, where you can do daily activities at home, including pilates, yoga and simple gymnastics.

Another sedative, particularly for women, is cooking, no matter how cliche is sounds. It has been recorded that many people prefer cooking as a type of self-therapy while staying home, this also helps people to appreciate homemade food and realize its importance over restaurant food. Also, for some relaxation and enjoyment at the end of the day it is recommended to take a bath, with aromatic smell. This will relax your body and you will have a better sleep.

To spend your days more efficiently, try to organize a schedule of your activities throughout a day and most importantly, do not overwhelm yourself too much, try to distribute everything according to your capabilities. At the end of the each day, mark completed activities, thus you feel the effect of your productivity and this will inspire you to complete more tasks the day after. fed up with all these listed activities and feel completely tired, lacking energy and motivation to stay productive. Many people find it challenging to focus on working or studying while staying at home, because mainly our home is supposed to be a place, where we relax and have a rest. Basically, during a normal schedule, majority of people give a preference to study and work in special spaces with good internet, or some cafes and libraries, where a person is surrounded in the atmosphere of working people and as a result, getting motivated to be productive. On account of this, it might get stressful in the beginning to concentrate the focus on staying productive, however, there are several stages of reaction to the isolation. At first, people get frustrated from the idea that they will be isolated, but some days after, they admit this fact and turn to watching movies, whiling away and relaxing. Next, they might finally start realizing that doing nothing and chilling all the day also takes away energy and even more, when you are actually proactive.

To keep positive vibes and maintain some humour, spend your cozy evenings watching a comedy movie or show, drinking a cup of hot chocolate or set of fruits. Provide and surround yourself with those things, that raise a smile on your face and bring you joy.

At this given moment, most of the humanity is locked in their homes and this is the moment to realize how our homes are crucial to us both psychologically and mentally. It turns out now that everything, including work, studies, fashion shows, photoshoots, TV shows can be conducted by dint of current technologies. The idea of being locked in homes for a while was a terrible fact that frustrated many of us, therefore, it is instrumental to understand how connected we are to our habitats. When we face the situation, where we have to rest at home, we should not be sad, on the contrary, we should be happy about staying in a place, which we made a best place for ourselves.

For sure, at some point, a person might also get