03/22/2020
These are stressful times and I just want to reach out and summarize a few things we can all do.
1. Apply. Listen and practice everything we are being asked to do by our government and health officials. The more we participate and practice, the faster we can return to normalcy. And if it was fake news from some guy Fall River, NS, who shared it from another person from Gibbons AB, who copied and pasted it from Nipawin, SK, where they knew a fellow from Toronto, ON, you can probably trust it!
2. Connect. Reach out to the elderly, family and connect with old friends. We all have phones, FaceTime, Messenger, Skype, Zoom, etc. Social isolation doesn’t need to feel isolating. Make sure you are dressed before the camera turns on!
3. Exercise. There are many exercises that can be done with body weight and simply walking. There are thousands of videos and websites you can find for free and get your heart rate up! As my friend Matt MacDonald promoted - Move That Town. It starts with the first step. Pro Tip: You can wear your nighttime or daytime pyjamas! Admit it - you know you will!
4. Skills. Being raised by a single parent, we were well versed in cooking, laundry and cleaning. I meet people all the time who worked in coal mines as kids, hauled water a mile from the river everyday, and walked 5 miles uphill in 10 feet of snow to school everyday...there and back! Teach your kids age appropriate skills, hand washing dishes, loading the dishwasher, laundry, sweeping, cleaning the tub and toilet, mopping and cooking. They can rake lawn, organize the shed, storage room, sew a button, etc. Even showing them how to do taxes, bank online, and plan & budget are skills most 20 year olds don’t know. By the time they are 6 year they should know how to sharpen an axe, roof and change spark plugs!
5. Unplug. All this news can’t be good for anyone’s mental health. We all have a deck of cards, crib board, board games, lego, and that 10,000 piece puzzle missing one part! Board games brings me to another life skill we learned as kids...how to run!
6. Learn. Study some new skills. There are hundreds of programs online that you can take. I usually dig into 3 or 4 easy to moderate difficulty ones each year. I am going to learn hairdressing online! Here are some of my completed projects.
