Category: Gratitude

Posted on

Free resources to CTFD, GTFO, Get It TF Together, or distract yourself from the pandemic in the comfort of your own home

If you’re sheltering in place at your home, wow, lucky us to have shelters. Yet, these are weird times, difficult even for those of us who have it relatively easy (which is to say those of us with food, shelter, health, enough, “non-essential work” or the future promise of work or enough savings it will be fine), and so I’m using the f-bomb liberally. (Sorry, grandparents!) That F stands for “free.” Of course you can subscribe to things and stream things, etc., but if your hours are light or your pockets moth-eaten or you’re Taylor Thrift, here are free resources to help you through.

We’re all trying something new with sheltering in place and social distancing. (Hell, some of us even are new to washing our hands regularly. Think about it. Don’t think about it.) It might be a good time to try new things—learning them, connecting with others in new ways, taking alone time. Trying new things is what keeps us alive and life worthwhile. Trying new things also, uh, sucks. Dr. Brené Brown with the (research-based) wisdom.

CTFD

Gratitude is one of the best antidotes to anxiety. Here is a gratitude journaling prompt I wrote for this occasion.

Coronavirus Coach (what! yes, this is real and actually helpful! Thank you to Kirsten Schofield for sharing it!)

Alternate Nostril Breathing from Yoga with Adriene

Embodied Meditations with Paige Gilchrist: I recommend the recent Belly Tension and 7-Minute Reset episodes: This free resource comes as a podcast (iTunes; Spotify; web browser) from an experienced yoga teacher who guides you through a brief meditation and gentle movement

Tara Brach Guided Meditations: These free audio meditations last anywhere from a few minutes to an hour; she just posted one specifically for navigating the pandemic that is excellent.

FFS, Learn Something New with What You Already Have

Your body! Yoga for Complete Beginners: Learn yoga! All you need is your body, and a floorspace big enough to lie down. (There are also chair and wheelchair videos, as well as videos for seniors.) Or try Diane Bondy’s “Yoga for Reluctant Beginners” series with a free trial of OmYoga (just be sure to turn it off if you don’t want it)

Your pantry! Food with Chetna: Learn to cook! A lot of her recipes are easy to sub in and out with pantry items.

Your non–toilet paper paper! Learn to doodle with children’s illustrator Mo Willems: He’s doing a lunch doodle a day while we’re all stuck here.

GTFO (Escapism)

If you’re a member of your local public library, most have access to e-books and audiobooks. You can search through your local library catalog. (Mine uses the Libby and Hoopla and Cloud Library apps.)

Kanopy (also available through many libraries) offers movies for free (included with your library membership).

PBS offers many of its documentaries for free.

You can watch Buffalo Nickel, a short film starring Rukhmani Desai.

You Must Remember This tells the stories behind classic Hollywood, and recently ran a series called “Make Me Over,” about Hollywood’s influence on the beauty industry.

Free dance parties with DJ D. Nice

Free concerts from many of your favorite musicians on Instagram

Virtual museum tours (L’Ouvre, NASA Langley Research Center, the Isabelle Stewart Gardner Museum (a personal fave), the High Museum of Art)

Mediated nature: The Cornell Bird Labs live cams; San Diego Zoo live cams; penguins taking the stairs; bats peeing

Nature nature: Go for a walk—just stay six feet apart from everyone you pass.

Gummy bear genius

Get It the F Together

The Sequester Checklist: How to add a little structure to these days by Earth-angel Carrie Frye

Pantry recipes from NYT (free for a few clicks)

WFH tips from yours truly, who’s already been done WFH for years

If you’d like to read more of my writing, subscribe to my monthly newsletter or read my book, Rodeo in Reverse.

Posted on

WFH tips to get through coronavirus

I am not a rules person, so I have only a few. I have some tips that have worked for me.

To the tune of always wear sunscreen:

Show your face on video calls. Wear real (if casual) clothes. Take lunch without work notifications popping up.

If you have trouble focusing and must get through something that requires chunks of time, you can try the pomodoro technique, which is 25 minutes of work followed by a 5 minute break.

Take advantage of the perks: if you want to run laundry or listen to loud music or watch Netflix during lunch, by all means. Make sure you get outside for 15 minutes a day whenever possible.

Set a timer to get up and stretch.

Make an effort to say thank you sincerely in an out-of-the-ordinary way once a week, on a call, through a text or email or note.

Communicate your priorities with your colleagues and boss, including when you check email (it doesn’t have to be every hour, folks) and when you’re unavailable (you don’t have to explain yourself).

Have a ritual to start and end the day so you’re not “on call” all day (it can be as simple as closing the door to a makeshift office or putting a laptop out of sight). Stick to normal-ish hours, including a bedtime. Shut down the work computer/tabs/documents/spreadsheets by 6 (or within 15 minutes of whenever your shift ends).

Mainly, be gracious with others and extend grace to yourself—though we tell ourselves whatever we need to tell ourselves about our work, most of our jobs aren’t that important (in these times, literally life or death); some people are lonely and want more interaction, some are rearranging caregiving for parents and elders, some are trapped with family and roommates or even children and babies (did I say trapped?). Some people have never WFH before and feel the need to prove they are, indeed, working by sending 40 emails. Some people are swimming through everyone on their team sending them 40 emails. Some people can’t focus due to anxiety about all that and more; others use work to distract from anxious feelings and dig in. Some of us don’t even have toilet paper at the moment. Basically, it’s the things we should be compassionate toward everyone about every day but don’t usually have the imagination or capacity for writ large. If you feel yourself judging your colleagues, try not to be such an asshole. (Might I suggest yoga, meditation, virtual birdwatching, or going for a walk?)

Here are more free resources to help get through coronavirus weirds; here’s a gratitude journal prompt to quell anxiety and offer you some courage.

You are enough. You have enough. You do enough.

If you’d like to read more of my writing, subscribe to my monthly newsletter or read my book, Rodeo in Reverse.

Posted on

Gratitude Journaling Prompt to Help with Coronavirus Anxiety

I went to the grocery store Sunday. I took a deep breath and popped on some gloves before exiting my car. At the entrance, the produce was made to look, and was, plentiful, though they were out of some “basics” on my usual list, such as yellow onions and potatoes. Still, there was a lot. Then in the bread aisle, maybe a couple dozen loaves of bread where normally thousands are stacked; in the pasta aisle, a few boxes of the gluten-free stuff, otherwise empty. No toilet paper, disinfectant, paper towels. Women wearing masks and stockpiling beans, clerks insisting they vape when a cough creeps out. I bought way more than normal, enough for two weeks, even as I put extra milk and sundries back on the shelves. “I believe there will be plenty of milk next week, too,” I said aloud to myself, like a totally sane person.

There was still ice cream.

As I saw the final price blurt itself across the screen, I felt my stomach tense. I felt grateful I could afford it and also embarrassed and worried I’d spent so much. I don’t think I fully hoarded, but the impulse was there, and I did buy batteries and lightbulbs and matches and dishwasher detergent and things I usually would wait to get until we were out at home. I’ll be honest: I felt scared, on edge, judgmental. My body felt tense.

I like to think of myself as brave. Lately, I’ve been feeling scared. But without fear, there is no courage. I think, in a time when great emphasis is on scarcity, courage may look a lot like generosity.

In that spirit, I’d like to share (or re-share) my favorite mantra a yoga teacher shared a few years ago:

I am enough.
I have enough.
I do enough.

I’d also like to share a gratitude journal prompt you can use. I shared this last week with the writers and artists who are taking part in this year’s Artist’s Devotional, but thought it might be helpful. I’m journaling for a couple minutes daily and finding it helpful.

Gratitude is the antidote to so much of life’s negativity, including foreboding and anxiety. I don’t mean this in a woo-woo or religious way (though those people would likely back me up). There’s a plethora of data to support it. And, as my friend Jeanette recently reminded me—you don’t even have to feel particularly grateful, you just have to write or say it.

Gratitude Journaling Prompt

Right now I am grateful for …

Right now, I can give myself …

Right now, I can give others …

Relationships—with each other, with our health, with our work, with our Earth, and yes, with our writing and ourselves—are among the most valuable things we have but don’t own. Not all the things that sustain us can be thrown in metal carts, then U-Hauls, hoarded, and price gouged. It’s like all the Christmas movies say: we already have, and are, what we need, if we take the time to notice.

For more free resources to get through sheltering in place, social distancing, and this weird time, click here.