It’s safe to say, we’ve all been spending an excessive (read: annoying, absurd, stupid) amount of time in our homes and apartments. Maybe you have a family member, a roommate, pet, plant or Alexa to talk to and keep you sane, or maybe you’re more of a lone ranger in this global scenario. Either way, it’s important for us all to keep our mind, body, and spirits healthy while practicing social distancing.
Here are a few resources you can leverage during this time to combat stress and feeling like you’re in, what feels like, a much-too-real ‘Black Mirror’ episode! Everything from entertaining “skills” to add to your home assistant devices, to creative journal prompts, to fitness and meditation accounts to follow on social, to staying connected with friends and family – it’s all in here.
Needing a little more instant gratification? Skim the bold parts.
Virtual hangouts and games
If you live alone and need a way to spend time with friends from a safe social distance, we’ve got you covered! Well, the internet has you covered. Video chat platforms like Zoom and Google Hangouts are a great way to host a virtual hangout, happy hour, or game seshto stay in touch with your loved ones while staying home. Both allow you to share your screen with participants from any device, making it the perfect place for group trivia or multi-player online games! We really enjoy the Jackbox TV games like Quiplash, Fibbage, You don’t know Jack, and Drawful 2. Just search them in your app store to download and play.
Browser extensions like Netflix Party and platforms like Houseparty allow you to do things as a group based on your availability. Watch a movie or show together through Netflix Party or open your Houseparty app to virtually spend time with other friends who are logged on at the same time – it’s like AIM 2.0!
Social media resources for positivity
With 77 percent of Americans having a social media profile of some sort, it makes sense that so many of us turn to a variety of platforms to mediate boredom and fill spare time, and search for inspiration. There’s an account for everything! Studies have shown that hours of endless scrolling can definitely take their toll on our mental well-being, so we wanted to share a few social media accounts to cultivate a healthier scroll-space.
Fitness
Local fitness studios and professionals are offering tons of free resources through social media right now – too many to list them all! One major benefit to these resources, aside from getting our bodies moving, is the fact that much of the instruction is conducted through Instagram Live so you can stay active without leaving the house. Those who want to tune in have to schedule their day around go-live times, mirroring how we typically go about working out and keeping some level of normalcy in that regard.
If yoga is your thing, Black Swan Yoga is a donation-based yoga studio local to all three cities we serve – Houston, Dallas, and Austin. They offer a plethora of flows and resources through their Instagram accounts, each specific to their respective cities – @blackswanyogahouston, @blackswanyogadallas, @blackswanyogaaustin.
If high-intensity workouts are your thing, you’ve got a ton of options! In Dallas, locals enjoy following @Dallas_Iron_Fitness, @SESSIONpilates, and @f45_training. In Houston, accounts like @sphere.club, @mytrainercarmern, and @revolutionstudio post home workouts for all stages of fitness, ranging from as quick as 10 minutes to an hour-long. In Austin, follow accounts like @regymenfitnessaustin, @champcityatx, and @trufusion_southaustin for countless high-intensity and strength training workouts to do at home!
Meditation & positive phycology
Looking for guided meditation or accounts to boost your psyche? Here are a few accounts that offer a variety of stimulating content promoting positivity, healthy introspection, and guided meditations to help with your mental health: @the.holistic.psychologist, @headspace, and @that_meditation_guy
Creative inspiration
Maybe this extra time in your apartment has created space to act on some creative inspiration. Maybe this extra time has sparked a yearning for creative inspiration. Whichever it may be for you, we found a few Instagram accounts to pass along that present co-habitation of art, positive mantras, and journaling or writing inspiration: @mantramagazine, @inspiringjournals, and @writing.prompt.s.
Expanding home assistant ‘skills’
According to a 2019 report by TechCrunch, over a fourth of US adults own smart speakers – that’s upward of 66 million people! These smart speakers often appear in the form of home assistants, the most popular of which are Alexa with Amazon, Google Home and Siri with Apple HomePod.
“Hey, Alexa – what’s the weather like today?” “Hey, Google – tell me a Harry Potter joke.” “Hey, Siri – pull up healthy chili recipes.” These devices have the ability to tell us everything we need to know to tackle pretty much any task at hand, but they have the ability to do so much more! Home assistants like the ones mentioned above can gain what is called “skills.” Skills, essentially, are like apps that extend the capabilities of a home assistant, created by third-party developers and downloaded and managed through the assistant app or a web browser.
Skills for Alexa
Some of the top skills downloaded for Alexa are song quizzes, games and trivia, question-of-the-day and audible stories. You can even get started by saying “hey, Alexa – help me get started with skills!” Queue up podcats, leverage meditation guidance, learn a language, solve a riddle or two when you’ve got a mental block with work – options are endless.
Here’s a list of skills available to download for Alexa.
Skills for Google Home
Google Home is generally closely tied to smart home feature enablement. Users leverage Phillips Hue light bulbs so it’s easy to turn lights on and off or dim by using their Google Home device. You can also establish settings like “Google, I’m back,” or “Google, I’m home,” as a command to enable routine-recognition and get your smart home situated exactly how you want it upon entering. But, let’s be honest – no one is leaving their homes or apartments that frequently right now – so, it’s time to put that little smart speaker to work in other ways!
Google Assistant is the virtual helper Google Home uses to complete commands. Like Alexa, skills are created by developers so Google Home can collaborate with their apps through shortcut phrases. Want an answer as to whether last month’s tinder date is going to reach back out? Download the Crystal Ball skill for a response. Feeling too good at life and looking for a little humility? Download the Roast Me skill and let Google tell you about yourself. With 18 categories of “actions” to choose from when it comes to expanding your Google Home’s skills, one can find limitless entertainment that doesn’t require a glowing screen.
Here’s a list of skills available to download for Google Home.
Hey, Siri…
HomePod skills are functions supported by the smart speaker. If you’ve ever used good ‘ol Siri, you know she’s got an answer for just about anything and though she can be ornery completing commands sometimes, it just takes the “right” shortcut. Since Siri is so dictation-centered, user experience can be greatly impacted by your choice of words. Music, podcasts, notes, message dictation, weather, sports, recipe measurements, vocabulary help – Siri can quickly become a forced homebody’s best friend!
Here’s a list of 134 HomePod skills to know.
Whether you live alone, with a fur baby, plants, roommates, or smart speakers – there are plenty of ways to stay connected and increase positivity if you’re intentional about it. We hope this served as a resource to help keep you connected to friends and family and contribute to overall healthy well-being while social distancing!
