I am here, shut in a Shanghai hotel room, unable to leave for another 14 days. Part of a meticulous process on paper, sometimes chaotic in practice, for me to enter China and work with co-workers and partners, whom until recently I could meet within a few hours of stepping off the plane.

It started with an application for a special visa, one of a small minority granted to foreigners, compared to the swathes that used to flock to China. Then came the nasal test and blood draw 24 hours before my flight. The application for multiple permissions to leave the US, enter China, be allowed into quarantine, etc. Finally, the nervous wait for my QR codes to turn green as the permissions were granted.

On entry the importance of each QR code frustratingly inversely correlated to the effort spent in obtaining them. Great attention paid to the QR code that took me five minutes to apply for, independent of blood tests, visas, and form filling. Finally came another nasal test, customs and police screening. Paperwork filled out on an industrial scale that only China is able to mobilize.

Experiencing how COVID-19 is treated in California and being up to date with events in the UK from my parents and the BBC. Every moment was a learning experience on the importance China places on each one of the established rules. It has learned what to focus upon depending on the risk of the person and the prevalence of the disease within regions and communities.

But still, beyond the government controls was the seriousness people were taking their own and their communities’ safety. Passengers rigorous wearing of facemasks, face-shields, gloves, and in some cases goggles and hazmat suits. Hermetically sealed to minimize the infection from fellow travels whom not 24 hours before had tested negative for the virus.

Now four weeks later, there are no hazmat suits in sight, but everyone wears a mask, not because they have to but because it is the responsible thing to do. I have dispensed with wearing my cotton camouflage mask, in favor of the surgical masks advised to be swapped three times daily. Everywhere I go, my QR code is checked and my temperature is read. The signals to isolate me if anything turns up abnormal.

However, this is where the restrictions in the local area end. I am free to move about, jump on a packed metro, have lunch with friends, even hold hands with someone in public, if I was so inclined.

The only extra enforcement was a third week in quarantine in Shenzhen. The result of some panicked governmental rule making, apprehensive of the annual lunar new year migration and some sporadic outbreaks in certain regions. However, these brushes with authority felt like an invisible hand guiding my path rather than the strong arm of the law. Everyone I met smiled and assisted to make my extended stay as pleasant as possible.

And with this invisible hand, I never felt that my liberty was curtailed. I knew it was for good reason and I found freedom from not having to make those daily decisions. I had my room, I had my books, I had my work, and I had my very limited exercise.

Not to say I did not encounter difficulties. My stress levels have definitely been high due to lack of exercise. It has been weeks since I have felt the endorphin rush of the runners high. And so, I have snapped at people, and struggled to maintain my temper. But this is something I have become conscious of and when I feel that rising tension within, I acknowledge it and give it the freedom to dissolve in its own time.

And so, in my extended quarantine. I had the freedom to neglect my fitness. It was actually refreshing to think even in these limited times what is still within our personal control. Many of us are lucky to have enough leeway to choose how to spend our time. Perhaps the next time you feel like you want to complain about the government, the police, your boss. Think about all those freedoms you are denying yourself by not having the discipline to act on your good intentions. This should be the starting point before any personal complaint.

Now that my quarantine restrictions have lifted, I am reflecting more on the decisions that are available for me to choose. The decision for me to take the easy option or to take the path that is harder but more rewarding. To wake up early, to go to the gym, to eat out with friends when they invite me, rather than to order room service. To walk, to take the metro, to discover. All of these require the overcoming of a certain amount of inertia.

We are lucky to have the hard choices in life. We need to be aware of when perceived confines are giving us permission to complain, to shift the blame elsewhere. Too often fewer restrictions make it easier for you not to do the things you wish, more freedom not to exercise your good intentions.

Next time you think about something you are prevented from doing, separate the goal from the perceived confines. Ask yourself, what effort will I need to put in to make that goal achievable and then go ahead and take the next step and see whether there is some mysterious force there to stop you. We are the fortunate ones, there are many with true restrictions on their liberty and we should not confuse our minor entanglements with their genuine struggles.