During the shutdown resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic, I have gone through a few stages: the home decoration and tour stage, the cooking stage, and the podcast creation stage.
Now, as we enter June, I find myself, once again, pivoting. This change of course is marked by leaning into spontaneity, in addition to taking a bit of a step back from some types of technology usage.
Leaning into Spontaneity
If you were to have told me back in January that I would fall in love with Los Angeles, I would have reacted with incredulity. I never thought that California in general was the best fit for me, but the sun, the beach, and the rooftop sunsets, coupled with the optimistic Angelenos who made me feel like we are all in this together, changed my mind completely.
Change is happening at a very different pace during the shutdown, perhaps slower nationally than I'd like, but much faster personally than in a "normal" time. As a result, just as I'm trying not to be, I'd advise you to not be alarmed if you have a strong opinion about a topic one day and, by the next, feel wholeheartedly the other way. These types of shifts that would normally take months or even years to gradually occur might happen instead in the span of days or weeks. Lean into the spontaneity, because it's the way to stay flexible right now.
Taking a Step Back from Technology
When the stay-at-home orders were believed to be effective, I scheduled many video calls as a substitute for in-person interaction. However, as the economy begins to re-open, and now that it has been shown that 66 percent of new COVID cases in New York surfaced in those who are sheltering in place, I am focusing much more on face-to-face, although sometimes socially distanced, encounters and stepping back from social media, where there isn't the same type of fulfillment to be found.
The way I've gone about this may or may not work for others, but these are my takeaways from being more mindful about phone usage and reducing mindless scrolling:
Don't feel the need to follow someone on all platforms. Just because a content creator's YouTube videos or Instagram posts spark joy doesn't mean that their podcast or tweets will be a good fit for you.
Delete apps that you find yourself mindlessly scrolling. You can always re-download when you have a specific reason to be checking in on updates.
To reduce endless viewing on sites like YouTube, set a bookmark to your subscriptions page and only keep subscriptions to channels for which you remember thoroughly enjoying the content.
Unsubscribe/unfollow and turn off notifications for anything that isn't either needed or uplifting.
"Nobody is comfortable with spontaneity. Anyone who says they are is lying."-Drew VanDyke
I was having a breakfast picnic in the park with one of my closest friends, who I've known since fourth grade, and I asked him how he approaches being more spontaneous and finds comfort in it. His response was the above statement, so as I'm going into June, I'm taking solace in the fact that things are going to be less planned and more spontaneous for a while, and that's going to be uncomfortable. The good news is that I've heard before that growth happens outside of one's comfort zone, so let's see where this goes.