Encouragement and Creative Ideas During This Challenging Time

Happy Saturday Everyone!

I woke up to a beautiful sunny Saturday. I was thinking about all the people that are out of work right now, my family, my friends and the people that are on the front lines such as our healthcare workers, our grocery store workers,. And I was thinking, these are tough times but we can  get through this. I was washing my face and a song came into my head and I just started singing. I think this is a great song and a great song for what we are experiencing right now. 

The song that popped into my head was I’ll Rise Up by Andra Day. I’ll sing a little bit of it for you for those that are not familiar with the song .

I am really an introvert and I am a shower singer. I sing in the house but I’ve never sang for people before. I guess today’s the day! It’s actually on my bucket list to sing for people. I was planning to start with Kareoke.

 I love music and I love to sing. It was really on my heart to offer some encouragement today. Remember, this too shall pass. Even though things are crazy right now, we will get through it. We have to remember to find joy in the little things. Find joy in things that make us happy. It can be as simple as dancing to your favorite song, having a virtual party with your friends or planting your favorite flowers and watching them grow.

If you are in the house with your significant other, children or other family members, enjoy their company. Cook meals together, spend time with each other. It’s not often that we have the chance to be together like this. If you are getting tired of people that you live with, lol I know that can happen too let’s be real! Make time to be alone. This is important for introverts. Go to your room and meditate, watch a movie or rest.  

In the first episode, I talked about just starting something new or something you enjoy. I talked about not procrastinating and just starting. This episode goes right along with episode 1 so if you haven’t listened to episode 1, make sure you go back and listen. Starting something new can give you something to do and can bring you joy during this difficult time. Many of us are feeling overwhelmed, isolated and stressed. I have some ideas of things to do to help with that while we are on this stay at home order. Here is my list of 8 things to do. 

1. Have a wine party with your friends. You can be social without actually being together thanks to Zoom! Gather your snacks, invite your girlfriends, get your wine or drink of choice and do a group Zoom with your friends. You can see each other, laugh and talk for 40 mins. A friend of mine did this with some of her friends and she enjoyed herself. I think it’s a great idea!
2. Exercise together via zoom. I love Mr. and Mrs. Muscle and Zumba. There are tons of exercise videos on YouTube or you can lead your own group exercise to your favorite music. You can find Mr. and Mrs. Muscle on Instagram and YouTube. 
3. Plant a flower or vegetable garden. You can use curbside pickup. Order your plants and the garden center will have them ready for you to pick up. Planting flowers brings me such joy! I plant every year and I love tending to my flowers. Especially on bright sunny days! It’s fun to wake up, go outside and water and prune my flowers and plants. I want to try vegetable gardening too. I’ll keep you posted if I start. I actually think there is no time like the present and it’s a great time to start vegetable gardening. The weather is nice and it’s a great idea to grow some of our own food! You can find great gardening videos on YouTube. I love YouTube can you tell? LOL
4. Craft! You can do things like Knit, crochet, paint, draw, work with wood, make pottery, cross stitch, silk ribbon embroidery, handletter, do something! There are many classes on websites like Blueprint or CreativeLive. Skillshare will teach you anything you want to know. Want to become a blogger, learn how to use a certain software or learn about ecommerce? Check them out! YouTube has great tutorials too. I’m not sponsored by any of these companies just to let you know. I’ll put the links to these sites in the show notes on the blog tab of my website as soon as I can or just Google Blueprint, skillshare and creativelive.
5. Learn to trade stocks. This can eventually serve as an additional form of income. I think it’s a good skill to learn. I’ve been learning for about 3 years now. 
6. Experiment with different recipes and cook new dishes that you haven’t tried before.
7. Limit your time when it comes to watching the news. Watch just the highlights so that you get any new information that you need to hear. I find that watching the news for long periods of time makes me anxious, stressed or angry. Be sure to walk away. 
8. Start a challenge on Facebook like the Being a Mom 10 Day Challenge. This challenge involves posting a picture that shows a day in the life of  being a mom without words or explanation. You tag someone different each day. Someone challenged me and I have loved posting the different pictures and remembering when my kids were little. They grew too fast! 

Those are all the tips I have for today. We are all in this together and we need to lift each other up. Anchor has a feature that enables you to leave me a message. Leave me a message with suggestions of things we can do, let me know what you enjoy doing  or ask me questions that you have and I may include them in one of my podcast episodes. Go to anchor.fm/happylifewithangelam

I hope I’ve inspired you and that you enjoyed listening. I would appreciate it so much if you would subscribe to my podcast and tell your friends about it. 

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I wish everyone a safe happy weekend! Have a great evening and do something fun and creative! I love each and every one of you! Until next time! Bye!