How to Be Happy, Sane and Productive Amid COVID-19 Lockdown

[00:00:00] Spotcast.

[00:00:12] Let me start by asking you, how are you feeling today?

[00:00:15] India is on the lockdown and most of us are either working from home or sitting at home,

[00:00:20] thanks to the novel coronavirus.

[00:00:22] In case you missed my other podcast this week, I've also been working from home and

[00:00:26] swam recording this podcast editing it and producing it from home.

[00:00:31] So some people have welcomed the lockdown.

[00:00:33] It kind of helps me a lot to to be in touch with some of my best friends and

[00:00:38] also few strangers were not spoken before.

[00:00:41] While some others have been feeling the worst effects,

[00:00:44] caused by isolation, loneliness, anxiety and uncertainty about the future.

[00:00:49] The lockdown period has had its ups and downs for me.

[00:00:53] It's been a little hard on me because of the fact that I'm not used to being so

[00:00:58] top at home.

[00:00:59] I usually am outmost of the time.

[00:01:28] I've been working on the Russian-interesting in the initial days, but it comes with its own

[00:01:32] set of challenges.

[00:01:34] Growing up, I had to learn ways to not feel lonely or sad when I was left alone at home.

[00:01:39] The internet was a bit part of this back then and it's also a bit part of the current

[00:01:44] situation but now we have way more options literally at our fingertips.

[00:01:49] So a lot of those ways haven't come back to me now and helping me when we are isolating during

[00:01:54] lockdown.

[00:01:55] Fortunately this time around, during this lockdown I'm not alone.

[00:01:58] My girlfriend is there with me for company and this will be the case for many of you

[00:02:02] locked down with family, friends, roommates and even pets.

[00:02:07] Now there are many ways to make the most of your time during lockdown, skills to learn

[00:02:12] and things to do to avoid feeling loneliness and isolation.

[00:02:16] I'm going to show you a few of those today.

[00:02:23] Even though there's salt in the soy, it's different than...

[00:02:26] Simply draw a circle on your feet.

[00:02:30] Alright, here we have a four-four groove that is just one measure log.

[00:02:33] Put our right hand over our heart and the left hand over the top of the right

[00:02:38] magic that this anxiety we feel is visible.

[00:02:42] Let me tell you what I've been trying personally and then some options for you, whether

[00:02:46] you're alone with family or with pets.

[00:02:50] Now some of the ways I'll cover include art therapy, music, online socialising,

[00:02:56] learning new skills and online counseling and showing link.

[00:03:08] This is Vishnu Kisikar Life, the show where you learn something new about nutrition,

[00:03:13] fitness, mental health or lifestyle choices from my experiences.

[00:03:17] I'm your host, Vishnu, Gopinath.

[00:03:20] I'm also joined by a lot of other people today all over the phone.

[00:03:23] We have chefs, counselors, art therapists and musicians.

[00:03:28] Now most of us listening to this are really privileged.

[00:03:32] We have food, water, shelter and money.

[00:03:35] Many of us also have the option to work from home but many others don't.

[00:03:40] They have to stay home during the lockdown either with little work or no work.

[00:03:45] This lack of stimulation combined with almost no socialisation

[00:03:49] and with our normal routines, gone for a toss, can create feelings of anxiety, uncertainty

[00:03:55] and other effects of socialisation.

[00:03:58] I've been practicing social distancing for more than two weeks now.

[00:04:09] In the first few days I started off by enjoying the amount of time I had to myself.

[00:04:14] Obviously, first and first I wanted to eat nice food but I couldn't order in.

[00:04:19] So the first thing you can do which I also did was cooking.

[00:04:24] Take this time to cook for yourself and your loved ones.

[00:04:27] Learn a new recipe, try something you always wanted to.

[00:04:30] What if you don't have any ingredients in your kitchen and one of them is something up?

[00:04:34] Well for that I spoke to Arnaub Gosh, a friend of mine who's a lawyer by day

[00:04:39] and master chef by night.

[00:04:41] You can be locked down, he started this thing where you can call him and tell him

[00:04:45] what ingredients you have in your kitchen.

[00:04:48] And he tells you what you can make with it.

[00:04:51] Since the lockdown obviously we've had to take certain stringent measures which includes how to cook every day.

[00:04:59] So initially it started off as me cooking and posting recipes online.

[00:05:04] But then I think on the first year, the second of the lockdown itself,

[00:05:09] I ended up speaking to three of my friends all of whom were locked down alone

[00:05:14] and they had no idea of what to do with the food that was already available in the pantry.

[00:05:21] So I decided to do a post-tastoring on Instagram and asked,

[00:05:25] all my friends to kind of share that.

[00:05:27] And basically I wanted people who needed any sort of help to get by the daily cooking

[00:05:35] and also advise them on how to stock up and what to stock up on.

[00:05:41] And giving what they like and what's easy to cook.

[00:05:44] Since then I have been speaking to at least around 11 to 12 people every day,

[00:05:50] telling them what's on the menu, helping them brainstorm,

[00:05:56] just talking to them, telling them what I've been cooking.

[00:05:59] What I've focused on right now is simple,

[00:06:02] full, 5 ingredient or lesser dishes which can be easily made in a kitchen and mostly

[00:06:09] through stuff that is very, very, very basic and very regular.

[00:06:24] Like I have a couple of signature dishes that I love cooking.

[00:06:28] A few friends of mine reached out on tiptoe recipe and ended up cooking those things.

[00:06:32] This is a really simple 5-day speed dish I'm going to tell you how to make.

[00:06:35] I made this up myself for one day when I was really hungry and I didn't have any ingredients.

[00:06:40] You only need chicken, Maggie Masala, onions and capsicum and cheese.

[00:06:45] You can also skip the capsicum or onions if you don't have them but it's better to have some vegetables.

[00:06:50] This recipe is super quick so pay attention are you ready?

[00:06:54] Still for a vegetable still they start to turn brown.

[00:06:57] Use whatever oil you want and throw in a kilo of chicken and 4 packets of Maggie instant Masala.

[00:07:04] That's kind of my go-to thing when I don't have anything else to add.

[00:07:08] Add some Maggie Masala, add more if you want to taste, add some salt to taste, add water and let it cook.

[00:07:14] When it's about 80% done throw in crushed up or sliced up cheese cubes and let it cook in the water.

[00:07:21] Stir it around so it doesn't stick. Let the water reduce and it'll eventually turn to this creamy, delicious, cheesy chicken that I guarantee will blow your mind and the mind of anyone.

[00:07:33] If you live with family or children, ask them to join in.

[00:07:43] They turn cooking and cleaning up together.

[00:07:46] It's a great way to learn how to cook something new or interesting and the end result is good homemade food.

[00:07:53] You'll also appreciate your made and cook more once you realize how much effort goes into cooking a meal

[00:07:59] and how long it takes to clean up afterwards.

[00:08:10] Now you can keep eating good food all through your lockdown if you have your ingredients.

[00:08:15] But after 3-4 days without talking to another person or seeing another person, you start feeling a strange disconnect from people.

[00:08:23] This sense of alienation. That's because like Aristotle said, man is a social animal.

[00:08:30] We need socialization, oxygen, warmth, food and water. We need to interact with other humans.

[00:08:38] Having family around always helps. So this is a great time to get back in touch and reconnect with your family.

[00:08:53] If you have a few close friends, get on a video called with them. A group chat can do wonders for your state of mind.

[00:09:00] Even if you have nothing to talk about, just calling out people you love and seeing their faces will make a major improvement to your state of mind.

[00:09:08] Like last week my friends called me or the blue and made a plan to all do the macarena on video.

[00:09:15] Did I do the macarena? No chance. But I got on the call and just seeing them talk about random things for 10 to 15 minutes, improve my mood so much.

[00:09:26] And now not in a plug-in-eats but you've got tons of options now. You have FaceTime, WhatsApp,

[00:09:32] videos, Zoom calls, Google Hangouts or even House Party. Which has fun games that you can play online while you video chat with your friends.

[00:09:40] I recently discovered it so it's become kind of a fun way to pass 5 to 10 minutes with the friend.

[00:09:46] Use this time to re-establish contact with friends that you'd stop talking to or who you always want to talk to but never make time for.

[00:09:55] I have had some very hard-to-hard conversations in the past weeks.

[00:10:07] So what about people who have to stay at home because of the lockdown but can't work at all because they don't have the option to work from home.

[00:10:15] How can they feel their time given that there's so much of it now?

[00:10:19] Apart from cooking and re-establishing touch with friends and family you can pick up a new skill.

[00:10:26] This is something you always wanted to learn but never got around to doing.

[00:10:30] Maybe you want to learn how to play an instrument or pay in to even learn how to speak a new language.

[00:10:36] This is the perfect time to do that.

[00:10:38] Or if there's something creative that you used to do but you gradually reduced or stopped doing, this is the perfect time to get back to that.

[00:10:47] I used to play the drums and more recently the acoustic guitar.

[00:10:51] I also used to know how to do magic tricks with cards.

[00:10:54] 14-year-old me thought magic tricks in music were a nice way to talk to girls but over time I stopped all of these things.

[00:11:01] I've been using this time in isolation to get back to practicing the drums and magic tricks and you don't need much equipment for these things.

[00:11:11] You can practice drums with just a pair of sticks and for card magic you will freely just need a deck of cards.

[00:11:17] All of these things can be learned on YouTube.

[00:11:20] That's how I learned card magic and both drums and guitar.

[00:11:25] A creative skill like this is also a great way to channel your emotions.

[00:11:29] Rage, anger, frustration, happiness.

[00:11:33] Music lets you channel all these energies into a healthy, creative outlet.

[00:11:38] My mom encouraged me to learn how to play the drums because it was a great way to focus a lot of the energy that I had as a teenager.

[00:11:45] Say what you will but there's something extremely therapeutic about beating the life out of a drum set or even beating life out of a pillows which will be very practice.

[00:11:56] I spoke to Swedish Gabriel.

[00:11:58] He's a musician from Delhi who also teaches drumming lessons online.

[00:12:10] Music is an age old remedy for stress I think.

[00:12:14] A lot of people have different connections to different kinds of music and some people connect it or to a very emotional play.

[00:12:22] Especially when it comes to memories and the fun memories or difficult times that music got them through.

[00:12:30] I think it's something that has always been a medium of comfort for people.

[00:12:35] But yeah, especially in times like this, I think music is something that is also a massive form of entertainment but it's also an energizer because I feel like people,

[00:12:44] especially people who are working out from home and what not now are just.

[00:12:50] I think that's a lot of different types of music to energize themselves and allow them to get through their work out, get through their day.

[00:12:59] My private classes are all one on one private lessons for an hour.

[00:13:04] In the school I have again a bunch of private lessons but I also teach something called ensemble and I have a larger class around four or five kids who are part of that class and.

[00:13:18] I basically help them kind of compose or learn songs or what not and then we put it together and.

[00:13:25] Make sure everyone is focusing on what everyone else is doing and just increasing their musicianship and I've always encouraged them to play with other musicians so that they can.

[00:13:36] Explore their side of the instrument and engage with it in their own personal way.

[00:13:49] By the way, once again, if you have family at home and you need to get some space or just disconnect for a bit and have some meat and.

[00:13:57] This is a great way to go about it. Put on your headphones, practice and get better. It's very rewarding.

[00:14:04] Obviously, if you have children at home from school with a lot of energy and no way to get it out.

[00:14:09] A musical instrument or a new skill is a great way to focus that energy and they will thank you for it in the future when they have that extra talent.

[00:14:20] So while music works wonders for some people art does the trick for others and that brings us to our next topic which is art therapy.

[00:14:30] It's supposed to be an excellent way to exercise your creative juices and protective mental health.

[00:14:35] I've now tried art therapy, but I've heard so many people recommend it that I reached out to a new sing.

[00:14:41] She's an art therapist who works out of the buy and Chandigar.

[00:14:54] One of the first things I do is break the two underlying bits that most participants believe in or have been programmed to be.

[00:15:02] Number one being, I am not creative. I have so many people who come out to me before the workshops and say,

[00:15:09] I can't even draw straight line or I'm not creative at all. Just because someone told us at some time that if we can't paint that apple and vase on a table or sketch of face doesn't mean we are not creative.

[00:15:21] Like language and gestures, creativity is also an expression. Everyone is creative in their own way.

[00:15:29] Number two being, that everything has to be done with the goal being on the outcome.

[00:15:35] The presentation should get you to pitch for the client's business. The roadie that you make should be round.

[00:15:41] Trust me if the basic requirements and efforts have been put into the task of the presentation having the right content and the roadie not being pro.

[00:15:50] How does it matter if it looks like the map of India?

[00:15:53] Everyone is so stressed about reaching the destination that we have forgotten to enjoy the journey.

[00:15:59] Over time and with experience I have devised many art forms that help participants relax, focus and even achieve a meditative state of mind while creating.

[00:16:10] None of the methods that I teach need any previous artistic inclination.

[00:16:15] The experience is extremely enjoyable and gratifying for children and adults.

[00:16:25] Before we reach a last segment let's cover a few other things you can do on your own time that will help your mental health tremendously.

[00:16:47] Do a digital cleanup along with a physical cleanup. A clean environment makes for clear thinking,

[00:16:53] while many people will clean their houses or their rooms most won't do the same for their digital environments.

[00:16:59] Clean up your computers, your phone and your other technology.

[00:17:02] Get rid of things you haven't used, clear up the clutter on your desktop and organize all your passwords, IDs and accounts.

[00:17:09] You can even take this time to add a few extra layers of security to all your devices.

[00:17:14] We spend so much time on our devices nowadays, a good clean up and maybe some fresh water papers and things will actually give you a fresh state of mind.

[00:17:23] Now the uncertainty caused by a lockdown can take a toll on mental health and it can affect some people much more severely than others.

[00:17:41] If you are suffering from feelings of anxiety, uncertainty and loneliness, you can reach out to a number of online counseling and help organizations.

[00:17:49] As booked in Yana Sabarwal, she runs safe space and organization that works with mental health and suicide prevention.

[00:18:01] The offer mental health support through calls, messages, online courses, meditation and more.

[00:18:07] And talking to someone whether it's over the phone or on text can make huge difference to have you feel.

[00:18:14] So in order to do that, a lot of our efforts have been in ensuring that we allow people to reach out to us through our Instagram, direct messages or Facebook.

[00:18:25] We chat with them and even do calls in places where there is a high distress element recorded in the messages or there are signs that the person may be talking about suicide in thoughts or self harm.

[00:18:40] We do take calls on that when sure that people are safe through this.

[00:18:45] We also are doing online courses on effective journaling.

[00:18:49] So journaling in itself is actually a science that when you know how to do it correctly can bring immediate emotional relief.

[00:18:57] So we're doing online courses on that.

[00:18:59] We're also doing mindfulness meditation because it's the only evidence-based practice to show that if done daily, we are able to bring our national brain back.

[00:19:09] And recognize that the only thing we have control over is the now and that the only thing that we are certain about is what we can do in the present.

[00:19:25] Now that you have all of these options, you can pick whichever ones suit you best.

[00:19:31] It goes without saying, but you can also use this time to catch up on shows, movies and music that you always said you'd watch or listen to later.

[00:19:41] I've discovered this nice new podcast about Japanese horror and caught up on about three seasons of TV shows.

[00:19:48] Spend time, connect with friends and family using the internet.

[00:19:52] Learn new skills, try things you always wanted to appreciate the things you have and acknowledge when you're not feeling 100% fine.

[00:20:01] And that's okay.

[00:20:02] Now final bit of advice before I leave is do all these things and learn from them.

[00:20:08] But don't feel like you have to undergo massive personal growth during a time in lockdown.

[00:20:13] Just take care of yourself and the ones we love and you'll make it out perfectly fine.

[00:20:26] I'm going to leave you on that note.

[00:20:28] I'll see you on the next episode of Vishnu Kisikid Life, which in all likelihood will also be recorded from home.

[00:20:35] So I will see you all next time.

[00:20:43] Thank you.