Create alone time

Imagine living 24 hours a day with another human being in a 6'x8' space. This space may be smaller than your bathroom…

This is the reality of prison residents during lockdown, which can last a few days to several months. They say that a great contributor to their wellbeing during these times is ensuring that every day they have some dedicated personal space and time, uninterrupted and totally their own and truly alone. Even when their cellie is only 2 feet away.

Some may meditate, draw or paint, read, study, write letters to their families. What they do doesn’t matter. What does matter is that this space and time be honored and respected.

Invitation: Balance out all of the “together time” by creating alone time with individual personal space for each family member. Unstructured time that can be used any way needed by the person. Each of you will be a lot saner for it.

This is part of a series. You see, on April 1st, I realized that I have a unique perspective into confinement thanks to my past 4.5 years engaging several times a week with the world's leading experts on confinement: prison residents. For the month of April, I will provide a daily lesson learned in prison that will hopefully help us to survive and even thrive while confined to our homes. Go forward and back to enjoy each daily lesson.