It has been the longest I have stayed in one place, one city, and one country for over a year now. When no one was watching, Covid-19 crept up on us and hit us with this lengthy pandemic. Work was moved from the offices to home, travel restricted, and a momentary disruption of our normal routines. It’s a bitter pill to swallow having conform to all that is unknown and unsure to us.

Like everyone, I have been stuck at home with only errands as an excuse to go out. At the first few months into the pandemic, I found myself happy that I get to stay home and finish the home projects I have been meaning to work on. But as the months progressed, the reality of not knowing when the pandemic would end finally sank in. This is more of a life update at how things have gone in more than one year into this pandemic and the things that it has taught me along the way.

Content creation

I will not lie and say I have breezed through travel blogging during the pandemic. The travel industry was hit the hardest and creating content about it came to halt. The good thing about content creation is that influencers can be flexible in the content they create and shift their voice to make it their own. Even businesses and brands have shifted to a more pandemic friendly practices in marketing and their business operations. The flexibility allowed me to create content outside of the travel niche and be open to lifestyle posts. This move gave a wider field of topics that I can create content with. And being stuck at home also gave me the challenge to be creative with the limitations of the walls of my home.

We all work well in a niche but we can also thrive with new topics, platforms or mediums we choose. Content creation after all is not a one size cookie cut-out that we must conform to. It is flexible and it grows with our personal growth, new found interests, and the whatever beliefs we stand for. The content we put out reflects our lives as authentic as it should.

Working smart

One of which I am thankful for is having not lost my job when the pandemic started. It gave me some sort of distraction from the frightening news of increasing infected cases. I drown myself with work and focused on it more. But I grew tired easily having to work day-in and day-out. It can be draining having to bust yourself with only one focus to get through the week. I have been mindful in the work that I do, making sure I am productive every workday. I have started listing all the tasks I need to get done, the day before I need to tackle them. I give priority on the first five tasks and make sure that all the important and urgent ones are on top of that list.

Listing my task and focusing on the top 5 important and urgent ones also made productive and tackling the important tasks ahead of the day. This allowed me to look forward to a weekend without any work and just enjoy work week break without having to worry if I missed something. It also makes it easier for me to disengage from work. Knowing how to set boundaries and limitations can be difficult. But when you already finished everything thing you need to get done, there’s no unproductive guilt when you’re shutting down the computer at the end of the day.

New interests

For someone who likes to explore places at least once a month, being stuck at home was a problem. And while it is definitely safer to stay at home and not add to the growing statistics of infected individuals, cabin fever has been a struggle. But the extra time at home and the urge to entertain myself had found me taking on new interests. I took on interests at taking care of indoors plants and growing my own herbs in a condominium. It was challenging but also rewarding at the same time. I have also spent more time in the kitchen. I tried new recipes and experimented in the kitchen. I gravitated towards recipes I was afraid to try out and pandesal, Filipino sweet bun, was one of it. Turns out I just needed the pandemic to step up my kitchen game.

We don’t have to be limited within the walls of our home, as simple as finding the love for cooking, doing indoor gardening or even taking on arts and crafts can mean big. Not only will it take your mind off the worries but it will also get in touch of the creative side of you. Don’t be afraid or ashame on making time for hobbies if it balances your mental and emotional well-being.

Getting fit and healthy

And because we’ve been mostly inside the home, it was difficult to get any physical activities done. As the months wore on, the weight of the pandemic was reflected in the weighing scales. My husband and I were gaining weight from the absence of exercise. When the number of cases in lessen, so did the restrictions. Some parks and public spaces were open. It was a good timing as husband and I have also decided we take on our health seriously at the same time. We went on walks and targeted 10,000 steps a day walking from our home to the park. We liked walking at the riverside banks of Marikina and makes sure we stir away from gathered people.

Sometimes we get so caught up being comfortable with our routines that we forget the small and minute important aspects in our lives – such as health. We decided to take on the health challenge with an end goal of losing weight, having a healthier body and becoming fit. It’s important to not wait for something horrible to happen before making health a priority and a choice.

Looking forward & hopeful

And while things have been comfortable at home, I still can not wait for the time it is safer to travel. I miss places, people and the glimpses of culture unfamiliar to me. I miss loud family gatherings, long coffee dates with friends and meeting new people. I miss having to interact with people seeing how their faces brighten up as they share their stories that may have been told a hundred times already. And I can not wait to see more of the world and just take it all in.

And the best thing about it is when it finally happens, we all have grown a bit wiser, gotten more health conscious than we were before and we now know how fleeting life is to remind us the simple but important things in life matters the most.