Thriving in the Days of COVID-19

Thriving in the Days of COVID-19

We are living in what seems to be an unprecedented time. Our old lives drift further and further away as COVID-19 continues to unfold with all its accompanying fear and uncertainty.

The CDC and governmental organizations bombard us with new, sometimes conflicting information with the general theme that we should take every precaution against deadly illness, hospitalization, and even death.

The economic standstill and staggering unemployment rates persist in breeding anxiety, unrest, fear, burglaries, and vandalism.

And, all the while, people around the world endure their preexisting challenges: systemic racism, oppression, illiteracy, poverty, disease, government corruption, religious conflicts, inequality, war, human rights violations, and climate change, among others.

While humanity seemingly teeters at the brink of destruction, I am typing from my secure, safe, and quiet home in Fort Collins, Colorado.

How are you doing? is a question we’re often asked during these times. For me, after a brief hiccup of hesitation, I persevere honestly - I’m doing fine. But why do I feel bad saying that? An undercurrent of anxiety reminds me that countless others are suffering beyond my understanding while I am doing fine.

Quarantine Privilege

Social isolation has been fairly easy for my family and I. We live in close proximity to nature trails, wooded streams, and open space with hiking opportunities. Our neighbors are always around for quick chats and check-ins, and our extended family is only a phone call away. We don’t have to take on the added work of educating school-aged children with working from home (WFH). I’ve already been WFH for the past 3 years while raising our son for two of them, so this isn’t anything new for me. We are finding time for home improvements, cultivating new hobbies, organizing, and getting rid of things we don’t need.

We appreciate our space more. We are spending less. We feel less of a crunch to “get there on time” since we don’t need to go anywhere. As with many, we’ve experienced pay cuts, hour reductions, and tightening wallets in stride, but focusing on the good has kept us afloat.

Privilege Necessitates Responsibility

We are constantly aware and grateful for our situation, as many other have it much worse. We don’t carry the immense responsibility and weight of others who are essential workers. But we do carry the responsibility of our privilege.

We’re doing what little we can to keep others safe, especially essential workers by reducing our trips to the grocery store, and to other places where we purchase supplies. Lumping all my trips into one morning a week has become the norm since March. We can also tip food delivery people more than we usually would. Donating to local food banks, shelters, and charitable organizations is another good way to help our communities. From home, we can use our social platforms to push our local and federal governments to do better, and to be better, not just for now but for long after this pandemic is over.

We will never be the same

This period in our lives might change us more than any other. However, I often wonder how can we change individually and impact society for the better while estranged from our physical communities as we once knew them? For nothing advances in a vacuum.

How can we use quarantine to our advantage?

How can we thrive during these times?

In order to advance in our separate vacuums, we should focus on ourselves. That sounds a bit self-serving, but hear me out. Change can only start from within before it can emanate to our families, to our immediate community, and to the greater world.

Below is a list of five simple practices to help us thrive during quarantine:

1. Spread positive energy wherever you go, even if you don’t leave the house. Even though we are wearing masks, we can smile, say hello, and chat with people. A quick, authentic greeting can make all the difference! This practice can transfer to our online communities as well, where we can use our social networks to spread positive vibes, raise awareness, and stay connected.

2. My husband Josh often reflects that this pandemic is probably a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Instead of looking forward to it being over, we should embrace the good that can come out of a slower, less hectic period of our lives. Spend purposeful time with your quarantine family. Arranging special outings and scheduled game nights, for example, can keep morale up and spread to the wider community. Embrace “roughing it,” as you would if you were snowed-in or if the power went out.

3. It’s a good practice to keep in touch and reach out to loved ones who we can’t see during this time. Sometimes relationships can flourish from a distance. Old-fashioned handwritten letters are the perfect way to do maintain and rejuvenate relationships, since “words penned on paper and sent to a friend or relative can be life-affirming and enduring.” - Jenny Rowe in Breathe Magazine Issue 30

4. Keep calm and stay informed. It’s great to stay on top of COVID-19 cases in your area, and current preventative measures, but don’t get too crazy about it. The news has a way of bringing us to low places, which can cultivate and spread negativity. Learn what you need to know, and then put the phone down.

5. Seek nature at every opportunity. The natural world has a way of bringing us back to ourselves, wiping slates clean, and instilling clarity and calm. This is because nature is always there as a constant comfort, while other aspects of our lives come and go. The essence of nature's healing is in its everlasting recurrence. We can trust in nature because nature always bares herself before us, offering what she can give, regardless of the season. It is through this relationship of trust that we can all - children and adults - come closer to trusting and knowing our true selves.

We all need to remember that the COVID-19 pandemic is most likely a once-in-a-lifetime thing. Instead of looking forward to it being over, perhaps we can all embrace the good that can come out of a slower, less hectic period in our lives.

Living a Life Less Ordinary Through Simplicity

I've had the exciting opportunity to be featured on Janet Luhrs' Simple Living with my article "Living a life Less Ordinary." In it, I show how simple living doesn't have to involve resignation to a boring, mediocre life. On the contrary, choosing a simple life can lead to extraordinary results!

Click this link to see how choosing a simple life can be anything but ordinary. 

Break the Twitch's Anthony Ongaro on Thriving

I'm very privileged to be able to include Anthony Ongaro in my new Everthrive Profiles project, in which I seek out individuals who are living their lives in "Everthrive" ways, and ask them "How do you thrive?"

Ongaro is a very inspiring person. He created a site called Break the Twitch where he exposes the "twitch." He defines this as a "compulsive, uncomfortable response to discomfort." For example, when we stop in the middle of a tough task and reach for our phones, we are twitching. When we mindlessly scroll through our Facebook feed and lose 30 minutes in what seems like 3 minutes, we are twitching. To dull the tedium of waiting for our train, we scroll through headlines on CNN. This is also twitching. Twitching doesn't always have to do with technology. You can get distracted by many elements in modern society, including television, shopping, eating/drinking, and even by playing video games.

To counteract the twitch, Ongaro promotes awareness. Instead of succumbing to the twitch, we should be aware of why we are twitching. Breaking the twitch requires us to minimize distractions, build good habits, and create opportunities to lead a fulfilling life. Through his blog and also through YouTube videos, Ongaro shows that everyone can live a life based on the principles of minimalism. He makes minimalism completely accessible, "whether they live in a mansion or an RV."

Naturally, I gravitate towards the ideas that Break the Twitch promotes, and I'm inspired by Ongaro's mission to motivate others to lead simpler, more authentic lives. In a recent email discussion with him about living to the fullest, Ongaro highlighted that the best way to live is to focus on authenticity first and foremost. What follows are Ongaro's ideas on how surpass survival, and how to really thrive.

In order to live authentically, I focus on the small actions that I do every day. Initially, I was very inspired by the Annie Dillard quote, "How we spend our days is, of course, how we spend our lives." It inspired me to begin focusing on what an ideal day might look like, as many ideal days compile into an ideal life. This helped me begin choosing small daily actions that I do every day and shifting as my priorities change. 

Making sure that I complete these small actions is how I make sure that each day I'm focused on doing the things that align with my values. Each person will have different things they choose to do each day, but I focus on writing 500 words every day, doing two sets of push-ups every day while increasing by two every week, and simply creating something every day. 

These are very simple but tend to be catalyst actions. I've always found that the hardest part about writing 500 words is writing the first 100. My first 500 words of the day often end up being 1,000 or more once the creativity starts flowing and this theory tends to apply to the other things as well. Doing my two sets of push-ups often leads to eating better or thinking about my other exercise levels more consciously. 

Building up and checking off these small actions nearly every day helps me stay focused on the things that will create my desired outcomes over time.