I DON'T KNOW if I ever have in my life added checking the daily AQI as part of my morning routine. The catastrophes that us Californians have to deal with lately is beyond ridiculous! First COVID, then lightning strikes, which led to massive fires throughout California. What's next? Aliens abduction?! At this point in late August, fives months into COVID SIP, I feel exhausted and discouraged... yet, my inner self is telling me to keep fighting and keep positive. But it is so hard to stay positive when even the air that you breath is compromised.
I know there are no quick fixes to the mess that we are in. It's a combination of nature's will, politics, and other factors. All I can do to not make it any worse is to keep positive and do what I do, and try to extend that positive vibe to as many around me as possible. Different people deal with stress and anxiety differently. I hope you can take the time to hear yourself out sometimes and to know that feeling unhappy and anxious in this environment is okay. It is only when we can face our problems and stress that we can try to overcome them.
I have come to an acceptance that we are probably living in a new normal now. People are going to be much more aware of their hygiene and the environment around them. Those that can accept this fact and can adapt quickly are going to carry on their lives back to as much normalcy as possible. We are probably not going to be going to concerts and cruises anytime soon, but perhaps we can explore different interesting things you can do to entertain yourself. In a way, I think it is a good thing that this change forces us to look beyond entertainment being "served on a silver platter" and instead, allow us to look within ourselves to explore our interests.
As children are going back to school this month, I am seeing on social posts how stay-at-home parents are adapting to home schooling (via online learning). Kudos to them for making this work! Kids nowadays are very adaptive and are native to e-learning. Parents, on the other hand, now need to wear multiple hats (teacher, lunch room staff, janitor, IT, ...etc.) to be part of the equation to make this home schooling work.
As summer comes to an end, let's re-focus and further refine Objectives and Goals for the rest of this hell of a year. For those that feel pretty good about where they are, let's stay the course and finish strong against the currents. For those that feel they might be behind whatever goals that they are trying to achieve, let's focus on ONE thing that you really want to work on and make a dent against before end of the year. Moving along in that direction will immediately lift you up. DO NOT GIVE UP! We are all in this together.
