Isolation Again, v14.6.1

Photo by Brina Blum on Unsplash

It has been over a year since our first Covid staying-at-home order lockdown over here. Since then, we've gone through various levels of restrictions with various levels of vague, chaotic rules and, hey, also abuse of power. But these days, as much as I can, I'd tell myself to avoid screaming into the void and try to focus on things that I can control. We need to stand up and speak up, but taking breaks from the endless things that rile you up sounds super great too.

Anyway, we are back to the "strictest" measure this month. "Strictest" in quotes because there's really no rhyme or reason for this thing. We were super strict when the total active cases was 3,000 for the entire country, but we opened domestic tourism and state borders when the daily cases were 3,000 at one point. So who cares. Flip one coin next week -- there's your Covid regulation for five days. I think the daily case count was 9,000+ about a week ago.

I walked a lot at night many months back. Felt like running was too much of a work. I listen to podcasts while running but can't really concentrate on them. I find it easier to enjoy the podcasts more and finish them quickly while walking. At the back of my mind, I'm at least 73% skeptical about the whole "physical activities are good for your mental health-thing". The best way to reduce stress is always by eliminating the sources of stress (😊 tsk, no shit?). But somehow I feel like walking does clear my mind a little bit...? I don't know. It's subtle. And on every other night, I'd look forward to these walks. I did 80km in January.

Then in February, I sprained my shoulder -- not leg, and mind you, during sleep -- but it was still kind of painful to walk or do anything. It was thankfully only for a few days, but I basically haven't done anything to date as we are in yet another lockdown and not allowed to jog outside after 8. Who exercises during the day under the sun???

I wanted to read one book a week this year -- like I did in 2019 and tried to last year -- and blog once a week. Haha. Ok, the reading is doing ok so far. Ish. The blogging is obviously not. It's like I can only achieve either a reading, writing, work, or fitness goal in a month or year, and not all of them.

My point is, I've not been very productive despite all the time that I have. And I've zero excuse for it. So this post is a reminder to myself to appreciate time and make use of it. At the very least, I want to look back on the year and be glad that I spend it doing things that make me happy 🤞🏼.