![]() It’s a meditative practice that’s good for salvaging any farmer’s market treasures you have hanging out in your crisper drawer. Make an afternoon out of pickling veggies and sauerkraut. ![]() It’s simple, but taking the time to slow down your breath and stretch your limbs can transport you to a calmer place. Get back in your body by touching your toes. Read to yourself, read to someone you love–read because the news is loud and the rest of the world feels a little too quiet right now. When spoken, a poem can feel something like a prayer. The effect is similar so long as you opt for smooth and easy music. Instead of pouring a glass at the end of the day, put on a record or strum on a guitar. It’s a ritual I’ve found myself retreating to on days when it’s comfort I’m craving most. Whether you’re making pasta or a cup of tea, there is something about the gentle simmer and eventual bubbling of a pot of water that has the power to soothe. Open up your blinds during the day and burn candles at night to keep the distinction between on and off crystal clear. When you’re sitting in the same room day in and day out, mood lighting matters. But there are other rituals to practice to stay sane (and safe) that don’t involve another trip to the liquor store… If you want to and are able to, pouring a drink is not the worst way to maintain some semblance of normalcy during an unprecedented global pandemic. It’s why happy hours exist, after all (which you can read more about here). It’s something we do habitually–after hard days and in celebration of good ones, we drink to commemorate and signify a moment. More than that though, I was reaching for a glass as a way to mark the hazy line between afternoon and night, work and play, weekday and weekend. It’s not that I was drinking as a way to dull the senses–although, yes, if there was ever a time to crave distraction, now was it. But about a week into work-from-home life, the ratio of days passed to drinks drank was inching closer to 1:1. Pre-quarantine, I was maxxing out at 2–3 drinks per week–a glass of wine with dinner here, an after-work cocktail with a friend there. An even more dismal sight was to be found in my recycling bin, which overfloweth with discarded bottles of pinot. I flipped the camera to display my ever-diminishing array of booze, an assortment of wine and liquor that had begun to overtake my rather large dining room table. I’ve seen similar trends within my immediate social circle–on a FaceTime call with a friend last week, we commiserated over our newfound lifestyle, with meal and drink time acting as an anchor for the otherwise mindless passing of days. I’m not the only one–in a New York Times article published last week, it was reported that Drizly, an alcohol-delivery service, has had its sales increase by 50 percent since news of COVID-19 began to spread. We’re several weeks into quarantine, which means my supply of clean sweatpants is running low, tensions between family members are running high, and I’ve been drinking… a lot.
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