The Coronavirus global pandemic-inflicted lockdown has changed all things for all people. In India, with no certainty about when the lockdown will be lifted, ‘stay at home’ and ‘work from home’ have gone beyond fashionable mantras and become lifestyle imperatives.

I recently made a post on my Facebook, with the expectations of my 1,509 "friends" to look at it and keep scrolling without commenting or giving their honest opinion. I thought to myself, I see these types of prompts all the time, contemplate about commenting for a split second then decide, I don't have time to do this for every person so why would I make an exception? Which led me to my next thought, how many people don't interact with someone online or give their opinions on a matter that's being questioned, am I the only guilty one? That conscious thought led me to yet another big question, that I didn't even realize I seek the answer to everyday, why would a person PUBLICLY make a post that had the potential for no interaction? Was that specific person attention seeking, were they needing their ego stroked, did they need to remind everyone on their "friends" list how much they were loved, what was the reason behind this post that looked at me and said, you love me right?

Okay, let’s face it. Quarantine has not been kind to us as a whole, but some things have brought smiles to our faces. Tiktok is definitely one of them.

Lock down and being furloughed from my work has gotten me a bit bored to say the least. I am enjoying being off work and can have a lie in to watch endless amounts of movies. However, I feel as though I have watched and rewatched every movie and show Netflix and Amazon Prime has to offer me. I even got the Disney plus free week trial to have a nice week of animations and fairy tales, which I did thoroughly enjoy. It has now been nearly two months of constant TV shows and movies that I now feel as though I have no concentration left to really enjoy my favourite shows. To combat my lock down boredom and bring back my concentration, I have even taken up answering paid online surveys online.

One thing that has helped me with this lockdown as tick-tock I tried the Post helpful videos about people with disabilities and maybe some General Life hacks along the way. I feel better because I am putting it out positive energy, as well as giving myself a project. I do have a YouTube channel called Yvonne Knight. However, those videos are a little more involved because of the editing process. Tick tock already has special effects and editing features built into the app. The features are pretty straightforward, even if you have no editing experience once so ever. I feel like making videos is its more comfortable way to express myself. Sometimes making videos is more relaxed than writing an article. YouTube, in particular, I can decide how long the video is going to be and how extensive the video edited Will be. When you write an article, you are writing to fit somebody else’s criteria. I like that YouTube and tick-tock give me more creative control over my work. I think in these times of separation, we need to find a creative outlet to express ourselves outward. We need to feel we are connecting to one another in some way, even though some of us cannot be with the one we physically want to be near.. If you are going to put forth a video on either platform, please consider doing a positive video, because there is too much negativity in the world right now. Please remember it takes a lot of courage to turn on the camera and pour out your creativity to the world. Some people Will is not tick-tock beautiful, but then again, the persons that are calling them ugly do not look much better than they do.

While there is no question that we are living in truly stressful times at this very moment, we also need to be aware of our blessings as well. For example, when it comes to the Coronavirus, everyone would agree that it is very dangerous and it has made a severely negative mark on our society. However, there are many things that this virus cannot do as well. For example, one thing that COVID-19 simply cannot do is stifle our creativity. One hall school senior in Olathe, Kansas exemplifies that very fact.

Staying at home is hard. Probably because we haven't practised it. And it's not healthy for us. And we loved our old lives. Ah not to worry. Let's look beyond that and enjoy the time we have now. What it hasn't stopped is our creativity, which we'll always have, and we CAN still communicate a vast amount of it online. One particular video that made me laugh and stop scrolling to work out its ingenuity because it's brilliant. It's a skiing video with a man in a full skiing outfit, and he journeys his way down a mountain.

My screen time is hitting astronomic proportions. I fully expect to have my friends and family sit me down and beg me to just stop looking at my phone for just five minutes. Of course, having my friends and family in the same place would be impossible due to the whole you-know-what situation so my screen time is going unchecked. Usually I’d feel a lot more guilt around the time I spend on my phone and the lack of productivity it often results in but given that it is my only way to connect to the outside world I think I’m doing okay.

A month ago today I was on Instagram trying to find some inspiration. I was stressing more than usually because I was getting ready to have my second stats exam and my first exam for psychology of prejudice. These tests in particular had been feeling anxious and worried cause i thought I would forget everything that I learned , I didn’t want that to happen so I went on Instagram to find some positivity, something I would remember for at least the rest of the day. So I decided to find a specific person page that would bring me peace and not have me worry about anything. I needed any kind of inspiration to lift up my sprits and to keep motivated. I wanted some positive vibes so I put the word INSPIRATION in the search box. There was lots of pages that had all kinds of motivational quotes, astrology facts and personality traits, which I loved, I can read quotes and reflect on them all day. I ended up finding this page that a lot people knew about but me, one of my favorite celebrities Jhéne Aiko follows the page , it’s called @eternal_knowledge. This page had brought me joy because it taught me a lot, things even my own family hasn’t told me. I was never told about positive thinking, positive thinking wasn’t common to be, u was mostly always down until I saw this “ Is your glass half-empty or half-full? ”How you answer this age-old question about positive thinking may reflect your outlook on life, your attitude toward yourself, and whether you're optimistic or pessimistic and it may even affect your health. Indeed, some studies show that personality traits such as optimism and pessimism can affect many areas of your health and well-being. The positive thinking that usually comes with optimism is a key part of effective stress management. And effective stress management is associated with many health benefits. If you tend to be pessimistic, don't despair you can learn positive thinking skills. Positive vibes are Positive thinking doesn't mean that you keep your head in the sand and ignore life's less pleasant situations. Positive thinking just means that you approach unpleasantness in a more positive and productive way. You think the best is going to happen, not the worst. Positive thinking often starts with self-talk. Self-talk is the endless stream of unspoken thoughts that run through your head. These automatic thoughts can be positive or negative. Some of your self-talk comes from logic and reason. Other self-talk may arise from misconceptions that you create because of lack of information.If the thoughts that run through your head are mostly negative, your outlook on life is more likely pessimistic. If your thoughts are mostly positive, you're likely an optimist — someone who practices positive thinking. This eternal.knowledge page gave me happiness and had me focus on getting ready for these two exams. This page gave me a change to do what i do best when I’m in school which is study. The motivation for instant gratification, and the idea that bigger and better can achieve happiness, influence what people share on social media sites. This in fact is true. I would like to thank ther eternal knowledge page for giving me the courage to not give up and work in study for each class without panicking or getting upset or have negative thoughts. If this page can help me it can help you too. Without this page I wouldn’t had past both exam with 85 and above. I really am not a fan of social media but when I found this page I tell I fell in love with it. It brings me happiness and joy and I can share that joy with other people. This quote really hits home “ We are in the beginning of stages in the biggest collective awakening ever seen in the history of mankind.”

DISCLAIMER: As you begin to feel like you’re entering into another cliché post thanking the “haters” for motivation, I ask you to focus more on my response, rather than the people I may never make happy. If hate is the sole reason why we’re driven, then we will miss out on the ones who are sharing love. Invite love into your heart, and you will realize happiness can inspire you more than darkness.

As the great Chumbawamba once proclaimed:

What a time to be alive! Am I right???