Home and Quarantine

This lockdown period has become a blessing for me in more ways than one. At first, I wasn’t expecting the longevity of it and I didn’t like the disruption of my routine. After accepting and adapting to this new way of life, I realised that it was the I needed to self-reflect and refresh what is left for this year. Now that I am working from home until June 2021, work and home has blended into one environment and it makes logging off from “work mode” much harder than I expected. This brought out my inner childhood activity of interior design. I started creating spaces in my home that separated work from home, and it led me to envision the aesthetics and the aura I wanted for my home. The overall theme that I have for my home is wood and it started with the way the floorboards are constructed. That led me to work towards creating a home that is nature-based using colours such as shades of brown and blue with white and green from my plants. I also discovered that I loved how rustic the colour orange looks against my skin when I wear that colour and I am working on bringing that accent out in my home. Therefore, whenever I come into my flat, there is an essence of warmth and positivity.

I love living a life of luxury…and that doesn’t mean expensive. It means a life full of unique experiences that are personalised to my tastes and core values.

With spending more time at home, I tried not to forget to work towards my goals for 2020 despite not being able to go outside. I ended up doing things that I had pushed back due to fear and here we are writing blog posts, writing guidebooks and living a life towards the elevating myself. I spent more time doing things that I never made time to do pre-quarantine such as baking, picnics, learning about Adinkra symbols and this downtime, I don’t really want it to end. I’ve discovered a lot about myself such as how I react to unknown changes in unprecendented times and how to control those reactions. I fell in love with self-care, working on building my faith and treating myself.

I know that life is going to slowly transition back into some new version of hustle and grind culture but I’m bringing these new habits, these new thoughts and this access of my inner child with me. I feel free discovering new things that I love having around me and lockdown taught me that I love living a life of luxury. When I use the word “luxury”, I don’t mean expensive; I mean a life full of unique experiences that are personalised to my tastes and my core values. I like incorporating the five senses in my morning routine and my surroundings whether that is smelling candles burn, listening to music that pushes me to dance or feel at peace, eating a dish where I can feel a burst of flavours explode in my mouth, a material that is soft and glides across my skin or watching a movie or seeing a picture that reminds me of a memory. I like ending my days with a cup of tea, some music and some light reading.

During the last week of the year, I prefer to use this time to rest, to reflect and start writing my intentions for the upcoming year. Since 2016, I started to choose a word to describe the upcoming year…I don’t know how it started but it happened and I kept on doing it. The word I chose for each of the years kept me grounded and encouraged me to learn more about myself in relation to it. It pushed me to live each day capturing the essence of that theme. 2016 was the year of “Changed Mindset”, 2017 was the year of “Invest in Yourself”, 2018 was the year of “Transform”, and 2019 was the year of “Abundance and Acceptance. 2020 was the year of “Elevation”. This year, 2020, wasn’t a year that I expected but it was a year I needed to slow down, heal and find peace. I didn’t see my word of “Elevation” come to fruition as I had expected when I figured out the word in February 2020 but reflecting briefly on what this year has brought, I elevated in ways that I didn’t expect. New opportunities and relationships that I didn’t expect to happen this year elevated me to a higher level and different space to operate from for next year.

Although I haven’t finished reflecting on 2020, my word for 2021 came to me at the beginning of December 2020 and it’s the best fit despite our current circumstances. With work and home being intertwined for the unforeesable future, hopefully, I can create this vision that I have for my home sooner rather than later. That’s one blessing I can say that 2020 gave me – an avenue to stop procrastinating and getting my home in order.