In Common Light

“Something seems different, everyone seems happier,” my friend said to me as we walked along the crowd of our senior class, back to our regularly scheduled school day. We had just had a pep rally on the football field, and we both had noticed the change of the general social atmosphere of our peers. We had just got back from spending a year and a half attending school online.

“I think what it is is that everyone has found themselves,” I said to her. It seemed like people were not as concerned with complacency or going along with the crowd and were more concerned with being themselves. This isn’t to say that I witnessed accounts of emboldened, heated discussion or anything. Or people taking complete turns in their behavior, seeming to be a completely new person. It just seemed like people were more confident. 

Quarantine Offered Space From the “Real World”

My theory of why people seemed happier also was fitting for me. Quarantine gave me a chance to take a step back. Having a two weeks off of school quickly turned into a new mode of school for the rest of the year. All non – essential businesses shut down. I was left to be in my house, with my routine largely disrupted.

Quarantine, separating me physically from my peers, gave me a chance to separate mentally — from all that I had felt pressured from, from the complacency of a continual routine of waking up at 7 and going to school until 3, doing it over and over, just as everyone before me had done and everyone after me would do.

The Benefits of Stillness

With my extra free time, I began to do things that I wanted to do, but that I may have felt weird doing amidst my more social, conventional routine, because they were unconventional. I journaled a lot more, reflecting on my childhood and its influences on me, as well as set intentions for my future. I researched mental health topics and read self-help books. I began weight-lifting and doing yoga regularly. I don’t think I was alone in picking up new habits. I heard accounts of many people picking up a new hobby like an instrument or a craft.

I not only embraced boredom, intentionality, and reflection, I also picked up mediation, which one would consider a literal act of stillness. When you mediate, you sit still with your eyes closed for a certain amount of time doing nothing but being still. What this does is centers your conscious awareness and, over time, increases inner clarity. According to a meta-analysis by Keng and colleagues, meditation is associated with “Increased subjective well-being, reduced psychological symptoms and emotional reactivity, and improved behavioral regulation,” (2013).

Even when quarantine ended, I continued these habits. After reflecting with my friend that day at school, I began to wonder what my senior year would have been like if I hadn’t practiced them. And, if it weren’t for quarantine, if I would have picked them up.

Conclusion

Why did it take quarantine, then, to notice that I needed to pause and really find myself? Why was I not made aware of the benefits before-hand? It makes me wonder how powerful a bit of quiet reflection could be, how much it could change our well-being.

References

Keng, S.-L., Smoski, M. J., & Robins, C. J. (2011, August). Effects of mindfulness on psychological health: A review of empirical studies. Clinical psychology review. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3679190/