Jules Heartly | April 1^st, 2020 –  Day Twenty-something of my day-to-day during Covid19-Mandated life changes. 

Mind changes- Personal Adjustments.

To write my blog or not to write it, that has been the question.

Continuing doing my best to avoid the non-stop news about the #Covid19 Pandemic while still keeping myself informed, I have had days where my body refuses to continue to do its job unless I take it outside for a walk.    I also have had days that going for a hike has not been enough. And I am not talking here about deciding what to do with my time, believe me, I have more than plenty of things to do, and enjoy (if I were in the best frame of mind) while at home.

It is not about how to entertain myself. NO!  I am still catching up with my long lists of tasks, and the not-so-long list of wants-to-do.  It is about how to live my day-to-day with an uplift spirit, especially when as you know shit happens.  I mean the issues that sometimes you deal at home, like boiler issues, or keys not working, pets needing a veterinarian check and so forth, don’t stop just because of the #CoronaVirus and when they appear, they probably stress you more than during normal circumstances.  Therefore, one needs extra positive energy, wisdom, and Joy to be able to stay afloat when something like that takes place.

When a friend of mine called me to share his mental burden for all the extra things happening in addition to the things we already know, I didn’t know what advice to offer, so I just listened. In the end, before hanging up, I apologized for not being of any help and asked him to do whatever it has worked best for him a while ago, not recently but long ago. Kind of inviting him to recycle a good thought/action/attitude proven to help when the mind or body feels out of sorts.

Nevertheless, I also recommended he “take a walk”,  because in the past and in my mind it rarely failed. But there is that 1% failing rate that makes the 99% rule, and as I later learned, he fell into that statistic when decided to follow the until then infallible principle.

As he went for a one-hour walk-errand-run, he ran into the following scenarios: The supermarket had long lines.  In the city, people were crowding to watch the arrival of a naval ship.  Near the park police officers were enforcing the 6 feet distance-rule. So he went from “Grocery shopping is not enjoyable,  to what the F@#$ are people doing not keeping #SocialDistancing – while he barely went outside-, to it feels wrong to be outside even if it is to keep your own sanity and gather your survival supplies.   Therefore, the walk was a miserable one.  He went back home feeling horrible after facing the shocking reality we all pretend it does not exist, while we work from home or we just #STayHome until the storm passes.

Afterwards,  and thanks to the Late Night shows (now being shot from home), we were able to have a laugh and engage in a conversation less serious than the facts themselves:  New Faulty/ineffective testing kits, more temporary hospitals setups, the president of the US doesn’t understand why there is a “sudden” need for ventilators .. etc.

As we discussed how to cope with  the next day,  it occurred to me, that perhaps we need to walk out and away of all the things consuming our days during this time, and get into our most inner selves,  to find and keep the peace, the balance, the energy that will carry us in our day-to-day especially when we don’t know how many more days we would need to #StayHome,  and the only certainty is the one in Bob Dylan’s song:

“Yes, and how many deaths will it take till he knows
That too many people have died….
The answer, my friend, is blowing in the wind… The answer, is blowing in the wind”

So yes, this time let’s do take a walk but one inside our essential nature, into our soul. Once there, let’s gather all the needed peace and strength to face this “twilight zone” like life we are experiencing today.

How are you coping in moments of stress during this #StayHome time?

I would love to hear from you.

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