I’ll be honest, I was just going to put this in a social media post but the more I thought about what I wanted to say, I found there was a lot I wanted to say so I thought I would make a blog post instead. Maybe this post is more for me than for anyone else but I hope that it hits home to someone else reading this. Quarantine is weird. As humans I think it’s in our nature to want to progress, we don’t like being stagnant, kept in limbo. We’ve been told to put a lot of things on hold and just hang in there when a lot of us struggle with that in a lot of ways. I am definitely someone who likes to keep going, move on to the next thing, I get too anxious and bored if I don’t. Fortunately, having kids has taught me how to calm down from that a bit. Being home with my kids was something I always wanted but it also goes against all of this instinct of wanting to keep moving because I basically have the same day over and over again every week. I have learned I have to love the little things and also to give myself things to look forward to. Basically I’ve been preparing for quarantine for a little bit with only working a part time job now. But I know the transition has been hard for a lot of people. Sure, we have been able to see good come from this such as more quality time with our families, prioritizing what is actually important (like toilet paper) but I’ve also seen a fair share of people’s struggles through social media. Let me be clear about one thing that was basically the point of writing this blog post and that is YOU ARE NOT ALONE! Whoever you are reading this, you can do hard things. Whether you’re struggling mentally, physically, emotionally or spiritually from this virus, know that this is hard for basically everyone. It’s not a natural thing for us to live our lives like this and it’s ok if it affecting you badly. You can accept that. You can even embrace it for a minute. Then I want you give it the big middle finger and tell whatever it is going on that you are in control! I’m not saying that life is going to be fantastic and just to put your big girl or boy pants on and suck it up. I mean, you can choose. You can make little choices to help you. You can’t control your kids millionth temper tantrum for the day. You can’t control stupid earthquakes from happening. You can’t control whether it’s going to be warm enough to go outside or if you’re going to be cooped up in a tiny space with a lot of people or completely alone for another day. But, I think it’s important for us to feel some kind of control in a world that’s really out of control right now which is why we are all freaking out! So, here’s what I want you to do. I want you to find a few minutes to yourself (it’s hard for some of you, I get it, I have littles that cling to me too) but I want you to write down a few things this week that you can be in control of and that you can do just for yourself. And then, I want you to give yourself grace. Last week I kind of sucked at a lot of things. My house was a complete disaster. I was on social media probably way too much. I ate like crap because I didn’t want to cook a lot of meals. I didn’t do my workouts like I should have. I was really bad at my prayers and scripture study. And I also probably yelled at my kids way too much. I’m trying to follow Elsa and just let it go! (you totally sang the song in your head, didn’t ya?) Guess what I did do last week though. I finally painted my nails, it’s been a while and they were sad looking. I played with my kids. I made an effort to drink more water. I started my blog finally. I did some painting. I went to bed at a decent time a few nights. So basically what I’m saying is balance is pretty hard to come by when life is normal and is a freaking unicorn jumping over a rainbow when there is a worldwide pandemic going on. It’s ok to not be ok and feel like you don’t have everything handled. But you can choose not to wallow in that place. It’s ok if you’re feeling depressed, just do something to get you out of that place even just for a moment because we have that power. Some things I like to do to get me out of the bad places are listen to music I love, really loud and dance. I love to play the piano. I love to binge watch a show. I love to go for a walk outside. I love to look at funny and ridiculous memes that make me laugh til I cry. I got outside and drew on the sidewalk with chalk for an hour which kept me really distracted from bad thoughts. I love to take a hot bath and do them on a weekly basis, that’s my time. I like to listen to a podcast or some kind of educational thing to give my brain something else to work on. Give myself a pedicure. The list is really endless! I realize these things won’t solve my situation or even “cure” me of my anxiousness but it helps for me to get that sense of control over myself which helps in a lot of ways during this weird time. I believe in you. This isn’t forever, it’s temporary and you can totally push through this and come out a better and stronger person on the other side. Don’t try to be perfect but we can at times thrive, not just survive through this even if those moments are few and far between. Make it a priority to take care of you in whatever way you feel like it will help. And just remember: We are all in this together!

xoxo Lacy