As more and more people stay home, expect your local Internet infrastructure to suffer. I'm already experiencing significant lost connections and data drops.
While this is terrible for keeping informed and entertained, it's vitally important to spend less time in front of screens - which melt brains (speaking from experience here), and induce panic.
My #1 Quick Tip - especially for couples, families, and individuals (yes, that's everyone) - is to clear off a table and get to work on a huge puzzle. Here's why:
It's meditative. I have a very hard time "letting go" and being idle. Puzzles are "interactive" but also use very little active brain power.
It frees your ears. This is a great opportunity to listen to music, a podcast, an audiobook. (Pro Tip: Many libraries offer free audiobook loans! I managed to play mine through my Alexa speaker.)
It's nonverbal bonding. As your kids/partners/spouses/brains start to become agitated, they'll start going to war. Puzzles offer a collaborative opportunity to non-competitively work on a project.
It has an end point. Unlike diet or nutrition, you are working towards a clear, concrete finish line, giving you a sense of continued purpose, mission, and accomplishment.
Anyone can help. Little kids can sort pieces into corners, sides, colors. Older participants can make up stories about the scene, or even research its subject. Get lost in the world!
It's completely not urgent. Unlike everything else that feels critical and frenetic, puzzles can sit there for ages without ever insisting upon themselves.
It's completely wholesome. It's a total escape from doom and gloom. Even watching TV or reading books, every other scene seems to somehow remind me of infections, quarantines, isolation, disease, panic. A puzzle collage of scores of movie posters from the heyday of late '80s-early 90's European cinema (who knew?) is our escapism.
I'm deeply indebted to Samuel Green who - without prompt or solicitation - brought me a very complex, 1000-piece puzzle on Day 2 or 3. Over the past few days I threw myself into my work, which was a serious misstep. The puzzle, sitting on the floor right next to my desk, was a perfect 1-minute or 1-hour break, giving my eyes, brain, and spirit an opportunity to disengage.
Governments and leaders are (hopefully) doing all they can to solve this crisis. In the meantime: Grab a puzzle, clear a space (that you won't need any time soon), and start putting the pieces for yourself.
