What I Learned From Two Months in Lockdown

On my way to the supermarket yesterday I heard a song come up from an old Spotify playlist. This song jolted me back to the weeks leading up to lockdown in Switzerland. I would play it on repeat while out running errands, or driving to the pool for training sessions—blissfully unaware of the extent to which our lives would change forever from one day to the next. Hearing it again, I got to thinking about how much can happen in a relatively short span of time and what I learned from two months in lockdown.

Take Small Steps

Every experience, whether good or bad, is an opportunity to learn. Isn’t that the common refrain? Like many people, I’ve certainly seen my share of both over the last couple of months. Back in mid-March when the closures were announced, my entire support network evaporated overnight. Life transformed instantly from a relatively stable routine to a terrifyingly blank calendar. As any fellow Type A will tell you, an empty calendar is the equivalent of being thrown into a spider-infested closet.

In order to get through lockdown with sanity intact, the control-freak in me needed a set of clearly defined goals. That’s how I came to create an 8-week Crisis Survival Plan. At the outset, none of us had any idea how long the lockdown would remain in place. Eight weeks seemed a good enough starting point: not too short, not too long.

Keep It Simple

To be clear, I didn’t set any extraordinary goals. In fact, I was rather disenchanted by the siren call of the (all too numerous) self-help gurus who sprouted up in those early days, exhorting the limitless possibility to “transform your life during lockdown”.

Some days it’s hard enough to get out of bed in the morning when the rug is pulled out from beneath your feet. The last thing we need in such moments is to be reminded of our untapped potential. I’ll settle for a blanket and Netflix marathon, thank you very much. Plus a well-designed home workout programme to keep me moving from time to time.

In contrast to the grand plans of these life-optimising champions, mine looked pretty modest. I set basic goals to maintain a simple morning and evening routine, ensure good nutrition and physical activity, keep social contact with family and friends, even if at a distance, and engage in meaningful tasks with immediate outcomes. The only firm rule I set was to follow through with consistency every day. (And I can assure you, this is much easier said than done for even the most modest of healthy lifestyle habits.)

What I Learned in Lockdown

Nine weeks have passed since the initial lockdown announcement and the country is gradually re-opening. As we move into the next phase of this collective journey, I wanted to pause a moment and take stock of where I am right now.

What did I learn during two months of lockdown? Could any insights from this experience influence how I proceed into what is being dubbed the New Normal? Are there any benefits from this forced adjustment worth keeping in future? On the flip-side, what experiences are best left behind?

With these questions in mind, I jotted down some of the most interesting, funny, inspiring, sad, and outright bizarre things I learned in lockdown. How about you? What did you learn in lockdown and what will you keep in your life going forward?

My Lockdown Discovery List

• • Giving up the habit of pretending everything is OK when it’s not is really hard…even when things are not OK for anybody else either
  • I am capable of swimming in nine-degree Celsius water out of sheer desperation when the local pools are closed
  • Maintaining a minimum of routine is essential for my physical and mental well-being
  • It’s true what the great philosophers say about taking things one day at a time: but it takes continuous practice…and even then, it’s hard
  • How to make homemade Chinese dumplings
  • People we thought we know well react much differently than expected in times of crisis
  • Book club meetings via Zoom can still be fun
  • Too much Zoom is exhausting
  • I didn’t miss much during the year I removed all social media apps from my phone: perhaps it’s time to try again?
  • Pre-existing depression both helps and hinders my ability to cope when external chaos arrives
  • Vets can be scared of spiders…?
  • A chance lakeside encounter with a stranger at the lake can open up a whole new world of possibility
  • You can still reconnect family or friends after a 20-year lapse in communication
  • Some days should be spent entirely in pyjamas, guilt-free
  • Walking is medicine
  • Nature is the most precious gift—and always right there, in front of our nose
  • There is an amazing array of never-before-seen food products at the supermarket, which I discovered while shopping for a neighbour
  • Governor Andrew Cuomo (enough said)
  • Push-ups and plank exercises are actually possible with enough practice, even for someone starting with virtually no upper body or core strength
  • I don’t laugh enough
  • It’s OK to eat cereal for dinner (actually this one’s a cheat because I already do that…I simply ate more of it during lockdown)
  • The line between enjoyable quiet time and unbearable isolation is thin
  • Randy Rainbow
  • You can lose your entire safety net overnight and still find ways to move forward