Think, Move and Play – How to Stay Sane
during Isolation
While you are in isolation why not learn how to stay sane during it? This feature article will show you how to Think, Move and Play during isolation.
By Joel Gelding
The New Normal
The recent transition to doing life at home has meant
different things for everyone. Some have loved the spare time and others have
found it terribly hard without social interactions. I have enjoyed all the
spare time because I have adopted the strategy of Think, Move and Play to
structure my time! These activities are crucial in maintaining mental health
and fitness too, an article on the benefits of coding says, “Become smarter -
think differently” (An, 2018). According to another article on the outcomes of
cycling it says, “Decreased Risk of Diseases” (TravelBugHealth, 2016), in a
time like this, a decreased risk of disease is worth its weight in gold! It is
critical to stay sane and healthy during isolation so what are you waiting for?
Think
You are reading this on your computer, but do you know how to use it? Most people cannot program even though it makes you think and learn how to use your computer to the limit.
“Everybody should learn to program a computer, because it teaches you how to think.” - Steve Jobs
If
coding is so helpful why do so many people not do it? Why do only 0.5% of the
population know how to? Coding is tricky, much of it is problem solving but the
reward pays off greatly. Many companies and organizations have made it much
easier so that it is like learning how to handwrite. I recently made a program
on Python which converts YouTube videos to mp4s which is very helpful.
A website that teaches you how to code in Python that I would recommend is learn python. If this language does not interest you there are many other languages to learn and w3schools is a great website that I use to teach me other languages. I would strongly encourage you to learn this during your spare time. Not only will it keep your mind switched on, but it will extend your knowledge greatly, if you need some time off screens why not do the next activity!
Move
During this pandemic with everyone being stuck at home and
only allowed out to exercise it is the perfect time to MOVE. It’s the
ideal time to get out your old bike out from the shed, polish it up and have a
great time riding it around.
Riding is a fabulous way to get you out and around breathing in the fresh air and getting a workout at the same time. Personally, my preferred way of riding is mountain biking (off-road biking). Infact mountain biking has proven to strengthen your heart and lungs (MountainBikesOnly, 2019). This provides you with a way to get out into the bush and flying down the hills having an amazing time!
Many YouTube channels provide wonderful advice on how to ride if you do not know, but they also provide free tutorials on how to do many skills on your bike just in the local park or oval. Two channels I would recommend are GMBN and Seth’s Bike Hacks I have enjoyed watching these and they are very helpful. Hopefully this will get you to MOVE during this unusual time.
Play
Playing music is something that will boost
your mental health and you could do during quarantine! I love to play the cello and
am doing 8th Grade in a few weeks. I would strongly recommend
learning a musical instrument as it improves your brain and lets you have a lot
of fun. Instruments that are more accessible are the guitar or the piano on
which you could start your musical journey. Learning a musical instrument will
boost your mental and physical ability (joytunes, 2016), so it’s time to PLAY!
If guitar sounds like a good option for you and you’re new to music, it’s time to buy a guitar. A guitar and a capo will cost about $70. It’s easy to start to play, you just need to learn a couple of simple chords, to learn the chords find the chord chart of your favourite song and look at where the dots are on the chords, this will show you where to position your fingers on the strings. - you’ll only need 3 or 4 to be able to strum along to your favourite rock classics!
I hope this article has given you some ways to extend yourself and to have some fun during this new part of our lives while Thinking, Moving and Playing!
Joel Gelding
Doing mixing for a musical, Joel with a sound teacher
Joel Gelding is a Feature Writer at How to School. He is an experienced musician and is fluent with using technology, he wrote the entire website on which you are viewing this. See more works by him here .
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