Staying at home has changed our daily routines, forcing us to try to create a new normal Despite the circumstances, we must still try to focus on what it can look like, both now and in the future.

Distancing provides time for yourself to momentarily disconnect from the outside world and reflect on all the things you want to accomplish in life. 

It can bring on a flood of questions that might bring down our physical and emotional wellness. But it also presents a good opportunity to  “clean out the closet”, both literally and figuratively.

Asking questions is the simplest way to get to know someone, so why not ask ourselves questions? To listen to our inner wisdom and find out what is hiding in the back of our minds. Make time to self-reflect and come out of the house with a newfound direction and a mad hairstyle to match.

For some, this sudden shift in life has provoked an onset of questions about the future. A pandemic is something that is hard to conceptualize and understand. It’s reasonable to question what is going to happen and to feel panic. 

To help cope with these feelings and questions the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has provided useful information. If you feel like you are having a hard time, please visit their website for resources.

For those who are ready to begin discovering what you genuinely want to be or where you see your future heading, now is the perfect time to tackle and confront those questions.

So where to start? How about a wiki-how! Confronting life’s hardest questions takes levity at moments and these simple instructions on how to contemplate life can start the process. They might at least provide a laugh, which we could all use.

This list created by the Odyssey can also be a great beginning to getting inside yourself. It asks questions such as: What does your ideal day look like? What chance of fate changed your life forever? These questions are concise and ask the shallower questions before you decide to dive deeper.

Once you’re ready to move to the next level of questions, try this list by Thought Catalog. It has 100 questions that are touted as extremely important to live a healthy and happy life. These questions get “straight to the point” of life: What drives me more: fear or failure? Am I holding on to something damaging to my growth? What are my passions?

I like the elements in this list as they cover more life territory and can provide a deeper plunge into the true essence of being you.

Listing is also a phenomenal exercise for your mind and imagination. Quartz suggests that making lists can “spark creativity by freeing your unconscious.” Perhaps, creating a list is the best way for you to understand yourself. Consider documenting a list of the questions that are floating around in your mind and then determine when would be a good time for you to answer them.  

I suggest journaling as a means of recording questions, ideas or lists that you have thought about for some time but never attempted to answer. Journaling is a therapeutic way of dealing with daily stress and a creative outlet that can generate new understandings. It also allows you to come back to it later and see how you have changed or what you have accomplished. For me, it’s a way to have a good laugh.

Although staying at home is a huge adjustment and has induced distancing from those we rely on for support, we still have ourselves. Now is the perfect opportunity to get to know yourself or to get lost so you can find yourself. 

You can also consider literally cleaning out your closet. Let go of bad nostalgia and things that might be holding you back in the form of clutter that has accumulated over the years. With the abundance of extra time, why not prioritize and put it to work for you?