How to maintain a positive wellbeing in isolation

We’ve undergone a cataclysmic change recently, not just to our routines but to our mental and physical health as well. Living life in self-isolation is testing people across the world, and everyone is trying to come up with new and exciting ways to stay entertained. 

From staying active to learning new skills, and from video calls to feeding creativity, here are BizSpace’s recommendations to maintain your wellbeing during isolation.

Community

Unfortunately, ‘isolation’ can feel exactly like that if you’re not putting a focus on remaining in contact with people outside of your house. While you can’t see them in person, you can meet with people in other ways to boost your positivity.

Feel like a movie night? If you haven’t heard about Netflix Party yet, you can download the Google Chrome extension and get your synchronised, virtual Netflix party started.

House Party is the video call app that’s helping isolated friends come together, battle each other in quizzes and games, and have a good time. Think: a trip to the pub, but virtually.

If you’re working from home, remember to meet your colleagues online for virtual tea and coffee breaks – the same as you would face-to-face in the office. Pencil it in and come together on your favourite video-calling platform: Zoom, FaceTime, Google Meet, Skype, Whatsapp et. al.

Join hundreds of strangers for a weekly singalong organised by musician James Sills. Sofa Singers is 45 minutes of simultaneous singing and connecting with participants across the world from the comfort of your home.

Food and drink

With less time spent commuting and more time at home, experimenting with food and drink has become not just a necessity but a beloved, therapeutic pastime for many. Whatever your guilty pleasure: if you’re more sweet or more savoury, or prefer coffee over wine, there’s a culinary-related way to stay mindful and entertained during lockdown. 

Are you finding it hard to conjure up a dinner with what’s left in the kitchen but not quite ready to brave a trip to the shop? Download SuperCook, the recipe app that pulls up all the recipes you can make with the ingredients leftover in your kitchen!

Bake! Since the whole world is now Googling how to bake bread, it’s clear to see why your social channels have blown up with the stuff. Banana bread-bakers are everywhere, and more people are trying their luck with the loaves. 

Try whipping coffee – another social media trend since being in isolation. It’s super easy, and you only need a few ingredients (and a fair bit of whipping power) to do it. The result will please your harshest critics – be they strangers online or the kids at your dining table.

Fitness

Since we’re moving less and are inside for most of the day, it’s vital we keep our bodies moving. Exercise releases endorphins, triggering a positive response and feeling in your body – ideal to help improve general and mental wellbeing. 

Join in the NHS Couch to 5k plan to build up athletic stamina with clearly defined fitness goals. Designed for running-novices, the programme alternates week on week between bursts of brisk walking and running, gradually increasing until participants can run five kilometres without stopping.

The highest-rated yoga app in the App Store, Down Dog, is a high-spec, tailored approach to your yoga workout. Whether you want to work on breathing, flexibility or even glute strength, try it today while they are offering free access for the self-isolation period.

Try an at-home workout – a popular fitness approach even before we had to stay at home. Start typing into YouTube to find your ideal workout, or choose one of Make It’s tried, tested and recommended workout streams.

Get a free fitness consultation and workout wherever you are with Total Body Construction. Jeff McMahon specialises in the fitness of businesspeople, using their ambition as the starting point for their tailored exercises.

Culture

It’s easy to stay home and spend all of your spare time looking at the television or playing computer games. But even though we can’t get out right now, there are alternatives for us to take in the arts.

Get a dose of culture in Florence’s Uffizi. The art gallery is offering free virtual tours around their art exhibits, including centuries worth of collected and curated pieces. 

If music is more your jam, you can take part in the Metropolitan Opera’s Nightly Opera Stream, with a wide range of musical and theatrical flavours. 

Check online for free e-book downloads that you can access via Kindle, tablet, laptop, desktop or phone. Reading often heightens brain activity and improves your memory.

Get inspired with this New York Times podcast snippet and take part in your own creative and entertaining virtual experiments. 

Have we missed anything? Get in touch on social media if you have different ways you are maintaining your wellbeing while in isolation.