Day 65 of Self-Isolation in Switzerland – Coping with Solitude

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Coping with solitude is one of the challenges that we, people who live alone, are going to become familiar with. It's 65 days since I've had skin to skin contact, sixty-five days since I've given or received a hug. It's sixty-five days since I've had a meal with anyone.

Happiness, whilst entirely and easily accomplished, is all about adjusting our goals and aspirations to remain positive, and even find happiness. As it's lunchtime, and it's Tuesday, I should be going to get food for the upcoming week but I don't have the positivity to do that at this instant. I'm writing this blog post because I have found, on more than one occasion, that writing helps me organise thoughts into a positive context.

I'm still working on the future.

Today I finished the Linkedin Learning course on Essential CSS and I started the course on CSS Essential Training. I'm still moving forward and I'm working on being able to apply for a different set of jobs. I have already studied for 102 minutes and my weekly goal is just 120 minutes so I'm reaching that goal with speed.

According to the Productive App, I'm on day 69, with 69 "Total perfect days". I've "done" 354 tasks so far with an average of 5.1 a day. With Duolingo, I have a 252-day streak of studying a new language every single day, with no "skip the weekend" or other cheats. I'm still moving forward.

I have returned five results and generated 3549 points for OpenPandemics.

Avoiding Reminders of What We Can't Achieve.

During this pandemic one of the easiest ways for me to be happy and stable, is to avoid reminders of what I don't have. By avoiding people who are not walking alone, by avoiding seeing families together, by avoiding romantic comedies, and by avoiding specific television shows, I can feel content with the life that is possible for a single person, living alone, in between jobs, not to fall into a negative feedback loop.

Happiness, is about being happy with what we have, and what is possible.

Driving to the mountains with a group of strangers to go for a hike, to go climbing or to do via ferrata is not possible. Even if we did go to climb on the Via Ferrata that are open we would have to respect the two meter distance, wear a mask, gloves, and then disinfect at the end of the activity.

With those limitations we might as well continue with our pandemic routine.

A person rides a horse along a dirt road near some woods.

During this pandemic I get comfort from people doing things in solitude, like the horse rider in the image above. I was walking towards the horse and its rider and it seemed spooked so I stopped, and let it walk by. I went into the meadow between fields to give it more space.

Moments like this feel good, because they're experienced between two individuals. I am not reminded of the solitude that I am currently unable to change. The person might not go back to solitude, but I draw strength from seeing other people dealing with solitude.

Thru Hiking, which is a topic I've been reading, and listening to podcasts about, is about spending hours, weeks, or even months in solitude with one's thoughts.

I love hiking with people, and I look forward to when hiking can resume being a group activity. It is a pleasant way of starting new friendships although this pleasure will have to wait a few more weeks.

Réfuges, in the mountains, are re-opening and these opportunities are slowly coming back. I look forward to when things are back to normal. I look forward to when we can start to do group activities.

I knew I'd feel better, after writing this blog post and I was right. I do.

It might seem strange that I'd rather not meet people who are not alone through this, but it's a coping mechanism, which is why I'm on day 65 of solitude, and ambitious, rather than the opposite.