Hi friends—this is the beginning of my third week in isolation. Depending on where you are in the world you might be on a different timeline. Depending on what you do you might still be going out every day, keeping the bare bones running while most of the economy hibernates. This pandemic is changing our lives; in many ways temporarily, in others, maybe permanently. I know I feel my mental health being tested, and—just a wild guess—you probably do too. I'm here with you.
Like many of you out there, I've been looking to be useful in ways that don't bust my now-especially-tight budget. The other day I was listening to an episode of The Happiness Lab and one of the coping strategies they suggested was to take time out of your day to focus on all the ways you're still OK in this moment. I have a safe place to live, I have enough food to eat, my dad is protected, my in-laws are healthy. For me focusing in on these thoughts releases a lot of emotions, but I'm alright with that. Like any time you feel danger and burst into tears the moment you find safety, I take it as a sign that I've let go of fight-or-flight a little and let myself process.
With that in mind, I decided to design a new coloring page. I haven't done much with text so far, but the idea of using it to help guide mindfulness has been growing on me. I'm notoriously bad at traditional meditation (honestly my fault for not practicing more), but if I'm coloring a page with a message on it I find myself focusing on that message by default. It can take me hours to finish a page, so that's a nice chunk of time where I'm focused on directing my thoughts in a healthy way. Hopefully you find that is true for you too. This page is downloadable from my shop and can be printed at home—no human contact required. The webpage hosting powers that be won't allow me to list it as free outright, but I was able to set up a 100% discount with the code "FREEBIE".
Stay safe, stay sane, take care of each other. xo