Every time the seasons change, I suddenly seem to hate all my clothes. I know I am not the only one. Since it is warming up here in LA (sorry to my snow-bound Colorado friends), I am definitely aware of the clothes I’ve been wearing for the entirety of the past year. And my youngest kid has outgrown much of what she’s NOT been wearing as she shuffled around in pajamas most of this year. Anywhoo, just a note that it can be a very nice small step back into real life to get a few wardrobe pieces that you will then also get to wear outside your house. 🙂
This week, I’ve put together some links for pandemic life and beyond as we straddle this middle space of not quite in the After Times. One of the links from last week had some journal questions to help process this year (you can check out that newsletter here if you missed it), and I’ve been thinking about some of them this week…like what would I have done differently a year ago, knowing what I know now? I would definitely have purchased some extra toilet paper in early March (it got a little dicey here when the shelves got bare), haha, but I would have also have had more people over, distanced on our back patio. It sucked to be unnecessarily isolated, but we were all too anxious because of what we didn’t know yet about COVID.
Tomorrow marks a year of the Los Angeles ‘safer-at-home’ order. Remember when we thought it was only going to be a few weeks? Wild.
And now, social interaction is weird. Like, how do you talk to people again that you basically haven’t had contact with for a year? I’ve put some tips on that below. Luckily, we’re all awkward. Just pretend it’s the first day of middle school and we’ll all be fine.
Ok, ready for a few ideas for you (and your life) (and the world) to be just a little bit better? Here are 5 quick links to bring you a little joy, a chance to think or to provide a helpful tool to you in 5 (ish) minutes! 🙂
Hope in 5 (ish) : your weekly newsletter to make being human a little easier
- It turns out, the human brain does not do well with boredom. repetition, and low levels of constant stress. Oh, you mean like this past year? That is partly why we might all be suffering from pandemic brain fog. This article seriously normalized a lot of things I have been wondering about and how much I have forgotten about things I used to do all the time. If you also cannot recall what you used to do on weekends, this one is for you.
- With more and more people getting vaccinated, the day is coming very soon where we will all have to figure out how and when we feel comfortable having lunch with a friend or going to a gathering. This article has some good tips as we deal with a new kind of social anxiety. Thanks for making us all awkward, Covid.
- If you aren’t sleeping well, your days aren’t going well, I bet. I’ve been struggling to sleep well this past year (probably you have too) and my very smart niece (who is a psychiatrist) asked me how my sleep hygiene was–things we’ve all heard about like blocking light in your room, late-day caffeine consumption, temperature and noise. I did a few things she suggested and it has made a big difference. What with the spring ahead-ing you may be dealing with, too, take a look at these tips and see what you can do to improve your sleep. It’s made such a change in the quality of my sleep. One of the things she recommended is to listen to sleep stories if your mind won’t settle down. I found this great list on Spotify of sleep stories. Tuck your phone under your pillow and let these nice, boring stories help you out.
- Speaking of travel (we weren’t, but we will be in the After Times!), this was a fun Buzzfeed article about differences in other countries that Americans noticed. I can vouch for the one about the trash in Tokyo! And I totally need to randomly get handed a baby in Madagascar. *pick me*
- Be prepared for a few week’s of Oscar film lists! There are so many! I found this one of ‘The 25 Best Oscar winners you need to watch before you die‘ and I have only seen about half of them. Que horror! Clearly, I have some work to do. Have you seen all of these?
Have a great weekend and I’ll see you in your inbox next week! 🙂
Hopefully,
Melissa 🙂
p.s. Have a friend or co-worker you want to share the gif below with? Go ahead and forward this on to them! 🙂
p.p.s. Oh heeey! Was this forwarded to you? You can get it sent right to your inbox next week!
