Another Corona article? Yes, but with glitter :-)
After more than a year of the pandemic, many people have simply run out of steam. Life is still restricted, the psyche is suffering and spring fever is also a long time coming. New words such as "tired" or "pandemic tired" have become popular to describe the mood. So that we can perhaps do something about this in the course of the article, here is a little mental inventory. I guess I'm not just speaking for myself when I say:
Sounds tragic? It is. But because moping around doesn't help either, I grabbed a few friends and together we thought about how we could sprinkle some glitter over our shared pandemic low.
That's true. But in my opinion, we students don't have to feel guilty because our problems are "worth less". It's more helpful to simply talk about it with friends and family. It's much more fun to get upset together than to sit alone in a mess of thoughts. Then you can perhaps put the issue to one side for a while. It also allows us to concretize our problems and then think about what we can do about them.
Another thing that has been increasingly annoying me for a year now is the lack of separation between "I'm studying now" and "I'm free now". This constantly gives me the feeling that I still have to do something for my studies and stresses me out unnecessarily. Sometimes the only thing that helps is escaping outside or changing the scene. If you feel the same way, why not move your workspace to the kitchen or swap desks with your flatmates? Also establish a work outfit and a leisure outfit. It may sound strange, but it works.
Any escape from the screen helps. I don't even want to know how many hours my laptop and I have spent staring at each other. But that's where the lack of drive comes back into play and the realization that you somehow don't have any hobbies anymore! "In the past", after studying, annoying everyday tasks, sport, going to the cinema, theater and bar evenings, the time just disappeared without you having to think about it.
The only thing that helps is to find hobbies and simply try something new! Whether it's DIY, skating, collecting stamps, crafting or making movies. You might even find an activity that is suitable for flow. Flow is a concept that describes absolute self-forgetfulness. You achieve this when you immerse yourself completely in an activity. You are neither over- nor under-challenged and are demonstrably happier. Children, for example, are in the flow when playing and are usually completely unresponsive. There's actually nothing wrong with digging out the old Lego again.
That leaves the motivation problems. Personally, it helps me to set myself something nice to do every day and work towards it. This could be a bike ride to Berzi, or the daily ice cream, only from my favorite ice cream store of course :)
These two sentences currently justify every cake escalation, every series marathon and the aforementioned daily ice cream. It's also absolutely okay to let your studies go or have a sofa series day. You can also enjoy your self-pity a little, then you can get over it again. I already demonstrated this at the beginning of the text. But what I'm getting at is: do what's good for you. You don't treat yourself to anything else :)
If you need some inspiration, we (my germ circle and I) have put together a list of what's good for us at the moment:
I hope we were able to sweeten your lockdown a little.
Happy lockdown greetings from Alexandra
Photos: Alexandra Liebich
