Gratitude is one powerful way to find peace and joy in yourself and can help ground you by reminding you of the important things in life while helping you focus on the positives in a shit situation. This is especially important in lockdown. Try it. You can just sit and think for a minute about some of the things that you’re grateful for. If you want to take it a step further, you can write it down or go and talk to someone about it. Someone telling you what they’re grateful for may trigger thought about some things you may be taking for granted. I promise it’ll help, even if it’s just a little, so here’s three of mine.

Family & friends

Family and friends (mainly the ones you’re isolating with) may be one of the main causes of your sanity deteriorating in quarantine. 6 weeks into lockdown and with much more time to go, a lot of stress will have been put on any family. Yet as we are all going through this together, there is a sense of harmony and understanding that is bringing family and friends all around the world together. We can talk about the things we miss, we can have dinner together, go for a nice evening walk. These are not things to take for granted, so I am very grateful for the family around me. I also feel connected more than ever to others who can be around me virtually. Today’s technology has allowed us to connect with the family and friends we’re not in isolation with, meaning I’ve been able to do a weekly pub style quiz with my friends as well as the odd quiz set up by my dad for the family. This has confirmed that I am terrible at pub quizzes but it is a lot of fun and it’s another way to socialise with the people I love.

Zoom

Zoom went from 10 million daily users in December 2019 to 300 million daily users in April 2020, and I’m not surprised why. It's easy to use, modern design and maximum latency of 150 milliseconds, the time a human can perceive an unnatural delay (a similar figure to what Daniel Ek says about the delay of pressing play and hearing music on Spotify) has allowed me to stay in touch with my loved ones. In the first couple of weeks, my friends and I would do long pub style quiz’s which would exceed the maximum call length of 40 minutes under the unpaid membership, so we all chipped in £1 to pay for a Zoom membership so we can call without having to restart the call every 40 minutes. Zoom has also allowed me to carry on my studies in my last term of uni, and although it sucks that I can’t go into class, I’m grateful that I’m still able to finish my studies properly, unlike the thousands of kids doing their GCSEs, AS and A levels.

Nice places to walk

I’m a sucker for a good walk. I grew up in a family that would make a nice, family walk a weekly activity, and that has definitely rubbed off on me. Being isolated at my sister’s house in Oxfordshire (which I’m also very grateful for), I have been able to explore the surrounding areas through the beautiful public footpaths and make the most of my limited time outside. Going for a walk, to me, has always been an opportunity to simply get out of the house and be in an open space to let my mind be at peace and be present, which now means more than ever.

Why gratitude?

Taking a minute to define and think about some of the things you’re grateful for can go a long way to improving your well-being, especially in hard times like these. My thoughts and love goes out to everyone and I hope you can find peace and joy in the things you are grateful for in quarantine.