Edition #16: Put "Feeling Good" at the Top of Your List
Plus, a new wave of support and understanding for the welfare system,. how john Mulaney spends his Sundays, and there are millions of emotions you never knew about
A note from the editor
For a lot of us, this week marks the first full week in isolation: working from home, leaving your house only to exercise or do your tenth grocery run of the week, having very limited in-person interaction. So I want to ask you, how do you feel? No, really, stop reading for a second and check-in with yourself, and if you care to, share you experience in the comments below.
Today, I'm feeling good. I've still got a source of income, I'm settling into a new routine and I've finally started exercising again. Am I scared about our current reality? Of course. Do I wake up and wonder if we're all living in a bad dream? Of course. But mostly I'm happy because I'm making "feeling good" my number one priority, putting it at the top of every to-do list, creating habits that bring me as much joy as I can possibly grab on to. I'm looking for reasons to smile, trying to excavate little bursts of positivity from every interaction.
In the midst of the chaos, I hope you can find something to feel good about today. If you need a kick start in that direction, try listening to this episode of my favorite feel-good podcast, and then consider what an ideal daily routine could look like, focusing on activities that make your body and mind feel peaceful. Here's how mine is shaping up:
Wake up and make strong coffee, sit in bed and write, then check work emails
Stretch and listen to an episode of the aforementioned podcast for 30 minutes, then do eight minutes abs
Have a quick breakfast, work for a few hours, then have a simple lunch
Go for a run around 2 pm-- a non-negotiable for some much needed time outside
Sit in a park or in a community garden and people watch for a bit, take some deep breaths, enjoy the sunshine on my skin
More work with a hard-stop at 6:30 pm, followed by 10 minutes of meditation (this has been supremely helpful)
Cook something delicious for dinner, FaceTime my sisters or my friends, sit on my couch and drink wine, maybe watch a movie
Then my favorite part of every day-- going to bed!
Suddenly we have all the time in the world, so much that it can feel daunting. Regardless of how you choose to spend your hours, I urge you to find a baseline routine, one that fits your lifestyle and your schedule, one that includes activities that make you feel alive.
Three Piece of Content Worth Consuming
Suddenly, Welfare Doesn't Seem So Bad. If you read one COVID 19 story this week, make it this article. At a time like these, our welfare system feels like a saving grace, even to those who don't typically support it-- when you're out of options, it sure is nice to have programs like unemployment and food stamps to fall back on. But the truth is that millions of Americans find themselves facing these same circumstances every day, even without the onslaught of a global pandemic--layoffs and co-pays they can't afford, choosing between feeding their children or taking their medication. Now is a good time to re-inspect your stance on these issues and to have open dialogue with others about how our current situation has affected their opinions.
John Mulaney Does a Whole Lot of Nothing. There are two things that bring me consistent joy-- reading about other people’s daily routines and John Mulaney. He's hilarious, dorky and adorable, and reading about how he spends his Sundays put my soul at ease. It goes a little something like this: wake up, walk dog, breakfast, therapy, dinner. There's something so mundanely unassuming about this schedule, snd if John Mulaney spends his Sundays doing mostly nothing and not feeling badly about it, we can, too.
It Turns Out There are Millions of Emotions. Have you ever felt an emotion you couldn't quite put your finger on-- not quite happy, but not quite sad? There's a scientific theory suggesting that endless emotions exist, so long as we can put a label on them, and this project attempts to label all of those in-between emotions. It's wholly relatable, endlessly entertaining. My current emotion-- confined appreciation: a somewhat guilt-driven sense of thankfulness attained during excessive hours of self refection during a global pandemic.
Perhaps You Should...
Join a COVID-19 Help Squad
Have some spare time? Consider joining a team assembling to help people affected by the virus, whether it's grocery shopping for an elderly person, doing a wellness check or helping a family pay their grocery bill. Important note: put your own oxygen mask on before assisting others. If you have the means and mental capacity to help right now, great, but if you don't, that's OK too. The best thing you can do is get yourself into a mentally healthy place first, and there's no shame in focusing on that.
(Hypnotizing and Insane) **Bonus Content**
With every refresh of the page on this website, you're brought to a different face. These faces look just like people you see every day-- friends, strangers, the mail man, the bird watcher at the park, the kid running up the steps at school-- except they're not, because these people do not exist. Instead, they're images created by a system of deep machine learning, designed to model off of a studied subject (in this case, human faces).
A Quote From a Book You Should Read
"Take pride in your pain; you are stronger than those who have none."
-Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry
This newsletter is best served with a side of conversation, so drop your opinions, reflections, and thoughts in the comments below and let’s get to talking.
Or, share the most thought-provoking piece from today’s edition with someone you love, then call them up to discuss, debate, and percolate. As a wise woman once said, “Great minds discuss ideas.”