How to stay sane during lockdown

For most of the world now, lockdown is in while the coronavirus runs its course. For us ocean-goers, that could mean staying at home for the immediate future until it’s deemed ok to travel again.

Here’s a few tips to help stay outside of your own mind, and to help stay at home in these unprecedented times.

Spend time with your family

We often get so caught up in our daily routine—slave, surf, socialise, sleep—that we forget to spend time with the people who are most important to us. During this time of forced sequestering, it may seem easy to become annoyed with the people you are cooped up with, but if you can step back for a moment and realise how much they mean to you, you might just come to see this as an opportunity to reconnect with the people you love.

Older members of your family in particular (like grandparents or ageing parents) are at risk during this pandemic, so let that be a motivation to you to appreciate your time with them, and be proud of the fact that you can make a small sacrifice to help keep them safe.

Read a book

Let’s be real for a minute, and admit that most of us don’t exactly have a reputation for being bookworms. We are one of the least educated sports out there but maybe it’s time that we did something about that. Since a lot of us have more time on our hands than we are used to, we have a chance to catch up on our reading—or even start the habit to begin with, if it’s not something that we normally do on a regular basis.

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Take photographs

Some of us are restricted to one form of exercise a day, but most of us have access to a smartphone with a half decent camera. Take photographs on your journey. Remind others what is out there for when this all blows over. It’s one thing to encourage people to go outside, but a completely other one to give a sense of hope nowadays.

Make some lifestyle changes

Over the past few decades, we have become a society that is addicted to service-based consumption. We eat our meals in restaurants, get our coffee from shops, and drink our beers in pubs—all of which makes us heavy on calories and low on cash.

Now that these “nonessential” businesses are closed, use this as an opportunity to turn over a new leaf that will benefit both your body and your bank account.

Make home-cooked meals with healthy, inexpensive ingredients; re-teach yourself how to brew your own coffee, and maybe cut alcohol out for a few weeks. The money you save will come in handy as the looming recession deepens, and you might just come out of this quarantine healthier and fitter than you’ve been in years—which translates to better performance in the water

Declutter/ enhance your space

Since you are stuck at home, you might as well make it a place you enjoy. Spend this time sorting through your stacks of surfboards and take note of which ones you haven’t ridden in years. Look for other things that no longer serve you but instead just take up space, and list them all on Ebay or Facebook Marketplace. Not only will your home become less cluttered, but you might even make some spare cash to help keep you afloat while businesses are shuttered and jobs are scarce.

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NIGERIAN TRIBUNE