Hello folks.
I haven't blogged since my retirement in October 2019. Thats nearly 6 months. Partly because I didn't want to crow about how wonderful retirement is when I've been lucky to retire early in life. I felt I had a position of privilege in retiring at 55.
Yesterday a friend coined the above expression that 'there is madness in some, kindness in others' as a reaction to the corona virus outbreak. This hit a note with me and as I mainly post about mental health from this account I was aware that I was having a lot more self talk regards my headspace with the corona virus impacting lives.
From Paris to New York City, from Madrid to Hoboken, from Moscow to Baghdad the conrona virus means that cities are closing restaurants, theatres, schools and other 'non essential' services to help limit the spread of the disease and though that is probably the best thing to do to flatten the peak of this virus for national health services it will be adding to the anxiety of people and affecting peoples mental health.
I don't have a silver bullet for peoples mental health at this time but I would encourage people to think outside the box at this time, I've already seen friends create hubs on the Internet for creativity, theres a Social Distancing festival in Canada where creatives are live streaming their work, there is a break room that a friend has created on facebook where the C word is not allowed for people to gather themselves - https://www.facebook.com/groups/3329526810410649/?ref=group_header and also another friend is preparing for a Virual Improv Jam on Thursday evening using Zoom. This is all great thinking and puts the Socialmedia into Social Distancing. We have more technical options in this crisis than anyone has ever had before, we have lots of ways of sharing at this time in all sorts of ways. I'm sure that Theatres, Schools etc will all need to be creative to keep creatives working and children and students learning but hopefully there are ways. Im really looking forward to taking part in the Improv Jam online on Thursday.
One of the things I would encourage people to do whilst navigating their mental health at this time is to think about options and ideas that will give you some social interaction at this time whilst the World feels like its closing down around us. I've just looked into some Apps on my iPad and found that a number of boardgames that I love to play with friends at my kitchen table have free online versions that I can play online and some of them are available relatively cheaply for 3.99 / 4.99 as paid Apps as well. We may be able by being creative to keep playing together at this time and that must be better than doing nothing, variety of our spare time is probably a good things to consider at this time. Varying what we do, if you have a garden, gardening is not disallowed at this time, I hate gardening but I imagine its a panacea against boredom and is a very different place to the front room sofa.
You could also take an online course as something different to attempt at this time, something practical from a job point of view or just something interesting maybe.
Also remember that this time is no different to any other time when navigating your mental health, you still have your toolbox to help you with that navigation, mindfulness, CBT, friends, hobbies, creativity. You can still dip into those things to help you along the way.
I appreciate I've probably just stated the obvious above but rather than be the hoarder of toilet rolls, lets not be the madness during this lets be part of the kindness, that means being kind to yourselfs as well as others.
#bemorekind
Tony x
https://zoom.us/
https://www.popularmechanics.com/culture/gaming/g2210/the-10-best-board-games-apps/
https://www.theatretrip.com/watch-theatre-online/
https://www.gofasterstripe.com/cgi-bin/website.cgi?page=club
https://nextupcomedy.com/watch-stand-up-comedy/
https://www.udemy.com/topic/improv/
https://www.futurelearn.com/
https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/covid19-novel-coronavirus
https://www.365escape.com/
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