A second departure from regularly scheduled content, just because things are different right now in all of humanity, and they're supposed to be. Things should be different. This time is a gift.
Just checking in with everyone to see how they are doing? What are you up to? How are you all surviving, and what are you surviving on?
This episode is 3 quick tips on how to make the best and most of this unique time in history. Hope you enjoy, and please pass it along to anyone you think would benefit.
Well, this episode is again a departure from the regularly scheduled interviews. Things are different right now, and that is what is necessary to take care of the state of humanity. So, this is just a quick, short, tiny episode of thoughts from my quarantine to yours.
First off I want to check in with everyone. How are you? How is life in quarantine? I hope you are taking advantage of technology. I hope you are reaching out safely to those that surround you and making sure that you have social connections during social distancing. I have been thinking a lot about how the world is handling this crisis, and it’s different for everyone, but it’s human nature to find a way to do this with joyful moments. I have been thinking a lot about how we are going to come out of this situation, and I am aware that there is going to be (and probably already is) some economic fallout, some hardship, and some life adjustments. But I think if we start looking at this as a gift of time, we will be able to weather the storm entirely differently.
Alright, my first tip is: Use your Creative thinking to become who you WANT to be at this time. The thing I hope that you take away most from this set of circumstances is that we are all hardwired to be adaptable. We are born creators, we are born with an intuition that carries us toward our own personal joy. We put that aside as adults a LOT. We try really hard to use our skillset to benefit those around us, and make the world a better place. We work hard, we take things seriously, we try our best in so many cases. All of that is really really good. But this time for us to not be expected to show up, to not be forced to act like anything but ourselves is bringing out the true colors of who people are. I grew up in a very religious background. And my family was maybe a little more on the extreme side. Okay, not maybe, we grew up in an extremely religious household. While I do still choose to practice my quote-unquote religion of origin, one thing that I cannot seem to get out of in my teaching abilities is using stories, metaphors and parables to illustrate what I am saying, so bear with me, that is where we are heading. Think of all of us, cordoned away from each other in our own living spaces. All of us are packed away to do with this time what we will. Most of us still have the challenges of everyday work, play, and family all trying to find a new place in the hours we spend awake. We are all a little like a packaging plant. Bear with me… in a canning facility, fruits and vegetables and even meat are packed in a canning liquid for preservation. Many times the canning liquid contains something that will enhance the end result for taste. Usually fruit is canned in its own juice, or in sugared water. Vegetables would be in just water or salted water. You would not want to pack something in the wrong packing liquid. If I made a peach cobbler with canned peaches, and I opened the can to find that the peaches had been packed in a salted brine meant for green beans, I imagine those peaches would not really work for my cobbler. Stay with ME! If we imagined that we are all being packed in, and told to hang tight for 14 days (maybe longer) what are we choosing to pack ourselves INTO to enhance the end result? I am not here to tell you what that looks like for you. You may be packed in salty waters for the 14 days and come out better for it. That is not up to me. But you choosing what you want the end result to look like tells you how to work backward to fill your time with the best possible recipe for yourself. Pack yourself with the things that help you stay calm, the things that matter the most to you, and take the time to reset with where you are.
My next tip is: Evaluate your own emotions, give yourself permission to feel them, then see what you can do to turn them into a positive light. Maybe every morning as you wake up take thirty seconds and do a body scan. Are you feeling depressed? Are you feeling stressed? Are you feeling rested? Are you being awoken by an earthquake (thank you Utah)? Evaluate intuitively where you are, and before you try and change it, or berate yourself for feeling that way, just allow yourself to say it’s okay to feel things like that. We are humans. We are meant to feel things. Please just take a few minutes to say it’s okay to feel panicky, or at a loss, or a little dazed. Name it, name it in front of your children. Give them language that our parents maybe failed to pass along to us. Put words to how you are feeling, and if it’s not something you feel like you want to feel, take a break from it. Something I have learned about feeling is we can put them aside momentarily. Feel it, name it, take a break from it, and then DO something to counteract it. Try and find something that makes you smile, or gives you joy, or even scares you a little (in the trying something new way, not in a cliff jumping sort of way). I posted on my personal instagram account this week about choosing who you want to be at the end of this. Will you be proud of the decisions you made? Will you be proud that you yelled at a cashier because they don’t have the quantity of items you were looking for in a store? Will you be proud that you reached out to a neighbor in need even though they may be the worst neighbor in the world?
One last thing: Think of ONE single thing that you have talked about wanting to try OR One thing that you want to get back to. Do it. Make the time. Take 5-30 minutes and play around with something you want to do. Every. Single. Day. Read more, exercise more, art, crochet, garden, board games. I don’t know what that is for you, but Nature has given you a chance to do one thing for fun everyday. At least one thing, but one thing makes even just a small difference. DO SOMETHING FUN. Everyday.
So, three things: Use your creative thinking to preserve and safeguard who you really want to be through this crisis, Evaluate your emotions intuitively, and finally: do one thing that is fun. Do it everyday. Thank you for listening today. I am hoping and praying for the best for all of you.
Okay, really for real, next week we will have an episode of my friend in Boise Kyle Kelson, who used a youtube channel to bring about more joy and happiness into his everyday.