Daily, influencers are telling us how to maximize our “quarantime.” They tell us the stocks we should purchase (none) and how we should have a hustler’s mindset. They tell us which podcasts to listen to and which books to read to become the next Bill Gates. Meanwhile, we’re fluctuating between being grateful for a break and being tired of the sameness we’re experiencing each day.
All the days seem to have run together and today feels more like March 32 than April 1. But are these influencers onto something? Should we follow their advice and use this time to dig deeper and develop ourselves?
Recently, I read an article about Keith LaMar. He is an inmate in Ohio who has spent more than 20 years in solitary confinement on death row. The steel space where he spends 23 hours alone each day is the size of a small closet or bathroom. Oprah and several other interviewers have reached out to Mr. LaMar with questions about how social distancing has impacted his life over the last several weeks. He simply equated social distancing with solitary confinement and gave his key to success: “you have to learn how to deal with yourself.”
“I’ve watched quite a few people fall apart, lose their minds. But I went in another direction. So 27 years later I’m still sound in mind and body and spirit. I attribute that to just reading and cultivating myself. That’s the thing, when you’re thrown upon yourself, you realize you are more equipped than you realized… It’s a good opportunity for people to tap into that.”
Keith LaMar as told to Samantha Michaels for Mother Jones
Our social world has indeed been thrown on itself. Generations of extroverts whose lives are filled with distractions are now being forced to deal with themselves in the most intimate of ways and with no escape. Social distancing has forced us to confront ourselves and the lies we’ve told about ourselves. Our inadequacies, strengths, quirks and limitations are on full display to us and our loved ones in our homes.
While this may seem like a negative thing, it’s just the opposite. Being faced with ourselves gives us the opportunity to change and improve. We have time and space to decide to be better and actually become better.
How many of us began 2020 with goals of improving our health, launching businesses and reading more? Maybe you wanted to be more spiritual or grow professionally. This big blip in time is giving you the chance to do those things!
Mr. Lamar will never see the outside of the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in this lifetime. But that hasn’t stopped him from learning, writing and practicing yoga.
Most of our spaces are larger than Mr. Lamar’s, and we’re blessed to share these spaces with others. We have the ability to make small or large changes that will allow us to leave our quarantime better than we began. We can choose sameness and monotony, or we can choose growth and development.
I choose the latter, and I’m starting now.
hesterandeve.com 