How to Survive Quarantine Fatigue

We’ve exhausted the Zoom calls, the sourdough starters, the puzzles, and Animal Crossing. We’ve gotten our pandemic puppies and eaten our weight in takeout.

And here we are, a full year of pandemic pandemonium later, theoretically on a home stretch to a “new normal” that seems to keep getting further and further away.

So what now?

Honestly, I haven’t been all that sure.

But after rage-typing for a few hours (it’s my therapy), I put together a little system for intentionally bringing more happiness-inducing elements into your life to combat quarantine fatigue.

Because regardless of your exact situation, I know your life ain’t like it used to be.

How to keep social distancing like you haven’t considered running naked around the block just to feel something

Ignoring that visual…

Imagine, if you will, a zoo.

In this zoo, there’s a tiger pacing back and forth in a confined space. (Sound familiar?)

Now, as a zookeeper, you have a choice. On the one hand, you could choose to throw some meat in pile, maybe clean out the exhibit once in a while, and just do the basics to keep the tiger alive.

But we all saw what happened in Tiger King, right?

Smart zookeepers, on the other hand, know that an important way to keep a tiger happy-and less likely to eat a zookeeper-is to provide enrichment.

At a good zoo, tigers don’t just get a pile of any ol’ meat. They get meat frozen into giant meat-cicles that provide hours of entertainment. They get meat hidden in trees and meat stuffed in toys. They also get jungle gyms and trees and giant balls to play with-anything to mimic the tiger’s natural lifestyle. Zookeepers keep a strict list of enrichment activities that are cycled in and out each day to keep the animals happy and engaged.

Well, guess what? You’re an animal (you sexy tiger, you). And you have to learn to enrich yourself.