This whole pandemic came at a bad time. I’ve been feeling overwhelmed by it, the kind of overwhelmed that makes you able to stare blankly at a wall for an hour. Yeah, you know the type.

I’ve been trying to combat it, in some ways I’m doing the things that I would do to try and fight of my depressive episodes, which is pulling out all of my coping mechanisms and making sure I’m doing the things that bring me joy, but this one has also included a lot of self reflection.

Obviously my short-term goals have changed, but not having anything to do has led me to think about what all I want to do and what is most important in my long-term plans. The change of routine has made me think that maybe my routine needs to be changed permanently. Not to this state of nothing, but to something different than it was before.

The fact is I liked the change at first, I liked being knocked off my rocker. I didn’t like the impending doom, but I thought that the change might bring something positive, and I think it still might. Certainly the pandemic itself is a negative, but there can always be a silver lining, and I think there is. I think the world as a whole is going to come out more thoughtful. We’ve been given so much time to think, we’ve been given so much time to care. I think we’re going to use both these things to our advantages.

Let this quarantine change the way you look at your life. Let this quarantine be whatever wake up call you needed. Did it teach you that you want to spend more time with family?  Did it teach you that you need to be better with money? Maybe that you need a second stream of income? Did it teach you not to take your friends for granted? That you need to take better care of your body? That maybe you weren’t missing sitting on the couch as much as you thought you were?  That you need to be spending more time with your kids? Did it teach you the value of a home cooked meal?

There’s so many lessons that are ripe for the taking, and while it’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the bad things going on, all the inconveniences and fears, we can take this time and harness it.

So if you’re staring blankly at the wall like I am, use that time to think and think hard about the life lessons you can take from this pandemic.