Patience, calm and other lessons learned during 2-week quarantine
Iwas set free from my twoweek home quarantine a couple of days ago and I have to admit, I wasn’t all that excited about it.
One of my favorite movies as a child was “The Shawshank Redemption,” and I remember vividly being perturbed by the character who, upon being released from prison, tried his best to be put back inside. He’d become used to life behind bars — the security, the routine, the people — and being out in the real world had become unbearably alien to him.
I’d be lying if I said my views on that character hadn’t changed over these two weeks. I grew fond of my forced isolation from the world, and I feel like I even learned a thing or two.
But first, a disclaimer: I’m definitely an introvert, someone who recharges his battery, so to speak, from being alone. The idea of home quarantine wasn’t tempered in any way with fear of not seeing another human for two weeks. Far from it.
If anything, the only fear I harbored was of not being able to go for a long walk whenever the mood took me.
Patience is a virtue
Patience is definitely not something I’m known for — when I want something to happen, it has to be now, now, now. Being locked up at home for two weeks, with no meetings to be at or people to meet, I feel like maybe, just maybe, I’ve become a little bit more relaxed about time and its constraints. You can only control yourself, so there is no point getting wound up over the schedules of others.
Calming down
These are stressful times, with the world currently in the grip of the worst pandemic to hit the planet in more than 100 years. The idea of being stuck at home for two weeks got me excited about resting and recharging my batteries, but I soon found that mental rest is just as important as the physical rest I was getting every day.
About half way through my quarantine journey I learned to remove mentally stressful agitators from my environment, even just for a set period of time. My work currently very much involves keeping up to date with this virus and all of the latest developments, but that’s taxing on the soul, so I started to set aside short periods where I wasn’t allowed to think about anything related to the novel coronavirus, or COVID-19.
Loss of control
I am very much the sort of person who needs to be in near constant control of my surroundings and my situation. Usually, if I know I can’t leave somewhere, I’ll start to feel anxious and uncomfortable. Two weeks in quarantine, kicked off by 24 hours being tested for novel coronavirus and waiting for the results, somehow gave me a sense of calm under situations I cannot control. It helped me realize it’s okay to not always be in control.
Over the past few weeks my situation was monitored by nurses and community officers. I had to wake up at 7am every day for a temperature check, which in normal times would have had me freaking out. If I ordered groceries or food, I was not allowed to freely open my door to collect it, first having to apply for approval in a WeChat group.
Therapy?
After my quarantine ended, I felt like in a way I had been through a two-week stint of cognitive therapy. I endured a situation that would normally make me uncomfortable and anxious, but in the end it was okay. In fact, I kind of miss it.
During my quarantine, I even had time to catch up with friends, including a video chat with Li Runsheng, a Chinese friend who now lives back in my home country, New Zealand, which is a week into total lockdown.
I will definitely remember this experience as something that helped me grow as a person, and whenever I’m feeling stressed about life in a huge metropolis, I will think back to that quiet two weeks — minus the situation that brought me there — for a bit of inspiration.
Editor’s note:
Andy Boreham comes from New Zealand’s capital city, Wellington, and has lived in China, off and on, for the past six years. He has a master’s degree in Chinese culture and language from Fudan University and is interested in all things related to contemporary Chinese society. He welcomes your feedback on all of the issues he covers. You can reach him at andy.boreham@shine.cn.