With everything going on these days, it’s helpful to have some different perspectives and extra tools to get us through the day. Here are a few for you to try.

1. Recognize that you are carrying a heavy load. It really is a load, and it really is heavy. Your conscious mind may have relegated it to the back corner, but it’s still there, exacting its toll. It’s everything that has happened in your life, everything that has happened to your life in the past few months, and everything that continues to happen every day. It’s a lot. A LOT.

As such, things are not normal. Your options aren’t what they usually are. Your responses to things may not be what they usually are. Hell, you may barely recognize who you are at times.

So it’s really important to simply acknowledge that much. Let go of the expectation that somehow you should be handling things the way you used to.

2. Do EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) or the Snow Globe every day. Just for basic emotional, psychological, and energetic hygiene. You don’t have to focus on anything in particular, even — just “all this overwhelming stress.” Or my favorite way, which is to just vomit it out as you’re tapping through the points or dumping into your Snow Globe hands. Let it all out, every crazed thought, every deep fear, every unreasonable feeling. 

And then a really great way to get to the rest of it would be to focus on “all this stress/tension/fear/anger/trauma/overwhelm that my conscious mind doesn’t want to know about.” The unconscious mind loves that stuff and will get all over it.

If you need privacy, go sit in your car. Drive it to a deserted parking lot if you have to. You have a lot more to choose from, unfortunately. Just give yourself the gift of being real for 5 minutes, which gives you the gift of clearing some real gunk out

3. Lower your standards. If you need a reminder as to why, see #1. We all have so much extra we are dealing with these days, and all of it takes emotional bandwidth and physical energy. Do you really want to allocate your precious energy to holding yourself to some perfectionist standards that were already unrealistic in Before Pandemic (BP) times, and are now just brutally unfair? 

Really examine those rules in your head about how you “should” do things, including but not limited to: cleaning your house, raising your kids, keeping up with friends and family, learning a new language, baking sourdough bread, tackling those unfinished projects, getting dressed, reading those novels, starting that new diet so you can lose that weight, getting into shape or exercising in general, being totally awesome at work, finding a better job, finding any job, cleaning out that closet or junk drawer, making sure your kids use their time productively, making sure you use your time productively, and doing something to change our unjust society.

All are worthy — just be clear what you can do, or is right for you to do, at this moment in time. Something might not be right for you now, but will be in a month when you’re in a different space.

And really think about what standards are actually necessary. So many we hold on to because of assumptions we’ve accepted as “true.” Rules and routines that may have made sense Before Pandemic might not make any sense at all right now, and just serve to act as a terrible tyranny over your life, health, and well-being.

Sometimes, we only have the energy to look at the pictures in People magazine — that Terribly Important current events book will have to wait. Possibly forever.

And now that you can’t do much of the old routine anyway, it’s a good time to see how much of the old rules you can let go of and how it feels when you do. And then later, only add back in what really serves you.

4. Having said that thing about exercise…do something physical anyway. It might not be what you used to do.  But it’s good to move your body in some way most days.

I do Zoom exercise classes several times a week. Even BP, I do/did not want to do them. I never want to do them. “Wanting” to do them is not the right question, because the answer is always NO. But — I do want what doing them gets me.

For me, the 45 minutes to an hour of me throwing a tantrum in my head is still a better deal than the 24/7/365 burden of guilt, anxiety, and shame I’d be carrying for not doing something I know is good for me to do. I hate feeling guilty. So either I’m letting the thing go, or I’m doing the thing. In this case I’m doing the thing.

Plus, I do like what exercise gives me — strength, flexibility, a stress and energy outlet, a (somewhat limited) social connection, and the confidence that comes from having a healthy and strong body.

So find something to do and do it. Tons of stuff online, or just go out for a 5 minute walk. The hurdle of overcoming the inertia is real, so if you’re just getting started, make it super small. A person teaching meditation suggested starting with what you think you can do, and then cutting that by half. Make it possible to win. Make it easy on yourself.

5. Get outside. It’s amazing, the healing power of fresh air and sunshine. If at all possible get into some woods. Someone once called the woods “nature’s great washing machine” because of its ability to clean us out energetically.

Plus, all that stress energy bouncing off the inside of your walls can accumulate and stress you even more. Outside, that energy can dilute and dissipate. Get everyone out there.

6. Treat yourself. Snacks, baths, special toys — whatever says “treat” to you. We all need special prizes these days. And sometimes the best prize is letting yourself off the hook for something that feels overwhelming to do right now (See #3).

7. Talk to someone you love. I’m an introvert, so spending time by myself isn’t hard. But I’m also aware of my tendency to overdo it. It can feel like a herculean task pulling myself out of my hermit corner — so much effort! But I do miss connecting with the people I love. It always does my heart and spirit good to talk with them or connect with them in some way. 

    If you’re an extrovert — it goes double for you!

8. Be really nice when you go out. It’s weird, wearing a mask. So literal, so metaphorical. I was aware the other day that I had gone through my shopping outing the same way I tend to do when I travel — feeling invisible, other people invisible to me, we’re just “the masses.” It’s not a good feeling. 

So it’s good to make a point of smiling, making eye contact, saying something friendly when you are out there. Re-establish your, and their, humanity.

9. Completely insane and wildly effective — Bark like a dog. Better yet, bark like a rabid dog. Bark like someone’s trying to break into your house or take away your bone. It’s great to do in your car by yourself, it’s great to with kids. There is something really primal about that growling and barking that can clear out some major stress. Plus after a while you feel so ridiculous that it’s hard not to start laughing, which in itself is good medicine.