{SHANGHAI ~ January – March, 2020}
What to do when all of a sudden going outside becomes a risk or is even not allowed?
My way dealing with the situation was very simple: Just get over it. it’s easy for me to say because I’m on my own; no family, no kids I have to worry about or entertain. It’s just managing me and my sanity through the lock-down.
When I was locked in, the rest of the world was still safe and I thought a lot about leaving China once this is over. I thought about the “freedom” back home in Germany. The possibility to hop into a car and travel through Europe. I thought about having a normal life again…
Besides a lot of work I had to do I kept myself busy with two main things: ‘Thinking about the future’ and being creative.
On the weekends, I facetimes a lot with my family and I kept them updated – but as I said – it all seemed to be so far away for everyone in Europe. Some people even said the empty street photos from China were fake…but that’s a different story.
I also used the weekend for arts and craft. I created cards, envelopes, was painting, drawing and enjoyed “yoga for the brain”. It’s all posted on my DIY page: >insert link<
Now, what would I do differently if I would go through the lock-down again…?
There are definitely a few things I would do differently. I can’t control work so much because it was and still is a very critical business situation so I would definitely put in the same effort again.
But I would start my day with a workout routine: some yoga or Tabata. I didn’t do that and therefore my day became a Bed – Laptop – Bed – Laptop – Bed… routine. Not good for body and mind.
I would also try to “leave the office” – close the laptop and have some quality time in the evening.
I could have taken the time to learn Chinese and read more books. But overall I think I was very productive during my non-working time.If I would have kids….gosh…. so many creative ideas keeping the little monsters busy. The internet is full of things to do.
