One of Jenny’s 3 educational degrees from a great university is Psychology and it just so happens that one of her capstone classes to finish that degree (that she aced) was a course taught by a Northwestern University educated professor on Happiness (the statistically significant psychology research on real people that labs & universities have published with the breakdown of the analyzed findings from their studies). Right now during this stressful time there’s definitely a lack of control that we have about much of what’s going on in the outside world, so all we can really do is figure out how to cope with the situation while being quarantined and encourage/ pressure folks to stay home (the sooner the we “Flatten the Curve” of escalating cases in our country, the sooner we can get out of quarantine when it’s finally safe).
Since we need to Shelter in Place i.e. Stay Home in order to slow the spread of this virus, we might as well work on happiness, progress, and sanity. Some of the findings of actual scientific psychology studies have shown us many things, some of which are things that do or do not bring us as humans happiness. Some of these things that DO bring happiness are: 1) Caring for plants which brings meaning & happiness to life, 2) Maintaining community (via group activities, group faith in religion, & more- right now via VIDEO, messages, and PHONE), 3) the positive belief that passing on knowledge/ wisdom/ making an impact can help future generations, 4) a healthy work environment which makes people happier, etc. Things that statistically significant scientific psychology studies have proven do NOT provide a better basis for happiness are: 1) the state you live in, 2) the amount of wealth you’ve accumulated (though this one is tricky because you need to be above the poverty line and have the basic necessities to be able to access the same amount of happiness), 3) if you have kids or not (many studies show that they don’t make you happier, but more studies may need to be done on whether they bring more meaning & wisdom), etc. Since the goal is to find happiness during a bad situation (since we cannot control everything out there), we’ll be focusing on the things that you CAN control/ do to improve happiness.
1) Rest and Relaxation
Take a few moments to Catch your Breath
Though your anxiety may be completely unchecked at the moment, you can try to meditate, look out the window, go for a walk in secluded nature (or in your neighborhood away from people if it’s allowed), and more to gain some serenity & work toward that well-needed rest that you’ve needed so badly lately. Don’t feel ANY guilt for needing to breathe and stabilize.
2) Get into Plants
Dive into gardening or learn about plants and nature!
Jenny grew up with her mom gardening non-stop and Jason grew up with his grandparents gardening on their rural plot of land. If you can get ahold of food seeds, it about time to start planing your food garden in the Midwest (and it’s already time in many other places in the country!) This will be our 6th spring-summer-fall gardening some food plants and we’re so excited to plant our seeds! Some of our crops like onions, chives, overwintered carrots, & sorrell are already coming up and soon our asparagus will be coming up! We’ve had a blast learning so, so much about around 40 different food plants that we’re always looking to spread the information & wisdom of planting food to others. Not only do you get to eat your delicious foods grown, but you learn and grow in the process! Locally we definitely recommend learning about the Unity Gardens and getting starter plants from the affordable Martin’s Greenhouse (not at all related to Martin’s grocery store).
Speaking of plants, it’s always good to learn about the plants around you. There are online for forums about plants in your area and amazing Facebook groups that you can join where people help you identify (“i.d.”) plants you may see and be interested in. Knowing what grows around you and the various uses that some plants is a great bit of knowledge to have. Especially helpful is knowing how the native people around you used all the plants and when each one grows. Personally there a many plants and fungi that we keep an eye out for for their edibility and we’ve learned a lot about these through our Unity Gardens Growing Summit as well as Facebook plant and mushroom groups. In almost any environment you can find plants that can be used for food or for their medicinal properties. It’s a great reason to get outside and do a little foraging.
From a houseplant standpoint, plants are a great way to liven up an area and help to keep the air inside or your house clean and oxygenated. The plants also give you a sense of responsibility as they require maintenance (some much more than others) and help to guide your attention toward their well being. For those of you with pets and children DO make sure to ensure that any plants that may be poisonous remain out of reach of your animals or kids. Hoyas, aloe, agave, fishbone tropical cacti, and cacti without needles are all great plants that are low maintenance (watered about once a month) and last forever! Other succulents can be a little more finicky especially if you over or under water, so we definitely recommend these strong plants as starters! Other easy plants to maintain are monstera philodendron, snake plants, and zz plants!
3) Foster or adopt a lifelong friend: A pet
Helping Them in turn Helps You
Since physical buildings are closed to the public, many pets are building up at shelters, humane societies, rescues, etc. These pets may have been abandoned during Covid-19 or have ended up homeless for a number of reasons, but you have a chance to save their life and gain happiness, wisdom, love, and more from these fur children. We ourselves currently have 3 rescues from 3 different rescues (Elkhart Humane Society, St.Joeseph County Humane Society, & Heartland Small Animal Rescue) and they’ve brought us joy for over 4 years! They cuddle with us when we’re scared, challenge us to train them, learn new things from us daily, and we in turn gain patience, love, and perspective from them. We both grew up with pets, so we’re naturally animal lovers. Even if you’re allergic to fur, there’s an animal in need out there ready to love you & teach you. Many places are looking for FOSTERS to temporarily watch these animals as well, so if you’re not ready to fully commit your life to a pet, aren’t sure if you want one permanently, or don’t want to permanently add another fur baby to your animal gang, then fostering an animal is equally as important especially right now!
4) Get Lost in Stories & Studies
As School House Rock Taught us, “Knowledge is Power!”
Whether it’s books, movies, shows, blogs, or something else, it’s nice to learn about things or get lost in a different (more or less chaotic) world! Since things are pretty out of our control on the outside, we can use this time to absorb stories, information, and more. Through reading, watching, etc. we can gain perspective, empathy, wisdom, creativity, knowledge, etc. It’s NEVER uncool to listen, learn, or lose yourself in an interesting story! Use this time to finish a book or read up on subjects that you’ve been wondering about. You can use some of this down time to watch a few movies or binge a series that everyone has told you about. (Go ahead and watch the whole thing in one sitting because no one will judge you). Our recommendation is to see what films won Academy Awards or other accolades and let that guide you through a list of films. Parasite is an amazing movie, we love the series Schitt’s Creek, and have a ton of recommendations if you reach out to us ( email us at: info@jennyandjasonphoto.com ).
5) Physically Organize & Clean
Clean, Open Spaces Help to Maintain a Sense of Calm
It may be high time to get to those things you’ve not had time to organize. Organizing gives you a sense of pride when you’re done, but also helps you declutter your mind while decluttering your home. For us we’ve been meaning to aggressively take on so many things. So far we’ve organized an entire freestanding garage attic that housed Jenny’s parents’/ immediate family’s belongings that were left in a mountain when they moved out of Indiana 5 years ago, all of our loose teas into reused glass & metal food jars, cut back the entire dead garden after 5 months of it being dead, and more! We still need to hang some final antiques on the walls and organize clothes we’ve been meaning to sell or donate that have been piling up, too. It couldn’t hurt for us to also organize the basement & other yard sale-able items in the attic. We may also get to the point where we finally re-paint our backyard dog white fence since we do have white paint in order to do so. Jason just power washed the entire wood deck, steps, and house as well as re-grass seeded 1/3 of our backyard within the past 24 hours (since the dogs & mower have done a number on the shaded backyard). Many friends of ours have also had this as their first moment to finally get to their home improvements (sanding, painting, etc) for the first time in 1 to 10 years amidst their busy lives!
6) Enjoy your Family, Pets, Kids, etc
Make the Most of Your Time Together….
We should try to make the most of this time spent together with our closest friends, family, loved ones, and pets that we’re quarantined with (and physically NO ONE ELSE outside of this group). With this being an unprecedented experience we would like to believe that this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. This is the longest that all of us are going to be forced to stay inside, so we should try our hardest to enjoy the company of those around us (at least some of the time- it’s ok to get annoyed and need alone time). For those of you that have children or rambunctious pets the stress levels are definitively a little high at times (PREACH), but make sure to work in some extra love, togetherness, and closeness in this strange time.
7) Learn to Cook New Things
Search for Some New Recipes Online
We love, love, love cooking new things. Some thing we’ve learned how to make from scratch at home over the years have been almond milk, walnut milk, clotted cream, from scratch pasta noodles, ice creams, dulce de leche, soft pretzels, delicious pickled onions, kimchi, dandelion wine, sauerkraut, kefir, kombucha, fried chicken, salad dressings, dips, pickles, middle eastern stuffed grape leaves, fried avocados, and a ton of other dishes. Especially now we think it’s very important to try to make interesting dishes from staple food items. If you are looking to conserve the food that you have on hand, make sure to look into some depression era and prison food recipes. This may sound like a joke, but we’re serious. With food being the staple of comfort, happiness, and contentment that it is, those that have had to adapt for other reasons have done a great job from very little.
Jason recommends this exciting “Hard Times” playlist on Youtube. It is full of all types of recipes worth looking into for stretching your rations: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLkUFQm9t2lDXsiR8pWl7Uv_ezsPpYRTsV **If you want to know how to make any of the below items (or want to know what they are), feel free to reach out to us via email at: info@jennyandjasonphoto.com
8) Stay in Contact with Your Community
We’re All Separate Together
Call, Text, Video Chat, Message, or otherwise (NOT IN PERSON) reach out to others during this time. It’s very important for mental health and life for us to maintain our communities. Even introverts like us love to bounce ideas, love, worries, random info, etc. off of others in order to feel like we’re connected with others at some level in such a physically isolated time. Jason has reached out and called/ video chatted about 8 friends and family members and Jenny has been keeping up with 9 family members and friends (mostly via text/ messages and some via good ‘ole calls)! We also reached out to our couples a week & a half ago to let them know that we’re here for them in any way that they need, so we’ve heard back from a handful of them as well as we all make our way through these uncertain times!
9) Work on Priorities & Mental Health
Some Parts of Everyday Life Can Be Put On Hold
Given that this is a stressful time with many unknowns, it’s important for us to continue to reschedule events, prioritize the most important aspects of our lives (health, loved ones, future career goals after the virus spreading lowers, etc), list to ourselves the hierarchy of importance of the different aspects of our lives, and work on our mental health. Jenny got diagnosed with General Anxiety Disorder 12 years ago and has spent over a decade working on it, we both have OCD tendencies that we try to keep at bay with chipping away at projects, and Jason has been working on his disorder slowly over the past 6 years as we’ve finally figured it out. Now more than ever is a time to really reflect on how to best tackle in a healthy way those mental issues so that you can live a more fulfilling, happy life.
10) Create Art, Music, Writing, etc.
There’s a reason that there’s such a thing as Art Therapy.
This is a great time to try something new, brush up on old skills, or finish creative projects that you’ve been putting off. You may be limited by the supplies on hand, but rest assured there’s something artistic out there that you can try. If you’ve ever wanted to try drawing, painting, origami, knitting, embroidery, digital illustration, photography, web design, etc, it’s a great time to learn. You don’t have to master an art to enjoy the process of creativity. You can choose to focus on something topical and meaningful or create fun pieces of work that simply act to make you and/or those around you happier. There are so many resources online from Lynda.com, to Skillshare, to Coursera, and various other learning platforms. Many of these platforms do require a subscription, so so you may opt for a free set of courses on Youtube. Below are some photos of things that we made so far during the pandemic (with the last 2 images being a fine art mentor’s garage studio)!
For those of you less inclined for the expression of the visual arts, writing or music can be equally as therapeutic. We aren’t exceptionally musically talented (since we ourselves gave up piano and singing), but for those of you that are, now is a great time to work through some songwriting or work on learning an instrument you may have been wanting to learn. (If you need a music teacher, we literally know at least 50 from Ohio to California who are doing online video lessons right now, so reach out to us if you need a referral to a professional!)
If anyone else stuck out there is limited by lack of equipment, musical ability, or doesn’t care for those mediums then there is always writing. Writing is a fantastic form of artistic expression and literally requires nothing more than a pen & paper (or a phone/ computer/ tablet) and ideas. If you aren’t feeling up to finishing that novel, try writing a short story or draft up a brief poem.
11) Work Out and Stay Active
Sitting Still Can Make a Long Day Seem Even Longer
This one can be as advanced as you’re able to make it. We have a vintage stationary bike, tiny travel treadmill, punching bag, weights, yoga mats, and more. Because of this pandemic, we wiped the dust off of these items and workouts have continued for Jason! If you don’t own equipment you can easily hop online and find At Home work outs on YouTube from yoga to traditional work outs and more! You can run in your neighborhood if legal for your area (keeping a 6 foot distance between you and people/ not touching railings or any surface with your hands). Your workout can also be something as simple as dancing to your favorite songs or making a Tik Tok dance video!
12) Play Games
Board Games, Card Games, Video Games, Online Games
Getting into Play can be anything from board games to puzzles to athletic events at home to any made up games! A mental challenge can help to pass time, keep those neurons firing, and bring you a little fun. (It’s also shown that kids are able to open up the most during a game or play). If you don’t have any board games on hand or don’t have anyone to play with you can always opt for video games, online games, or phone app games. If you prefer something a little more traditional you can download some crossword puzzles, Sudoku puzzles, or other written brain challenges. Jigsaw puzzles are also a great way to pass time if you have one handy.
Hopefully these 12 ideas helps spur some ideas for how you can pass some time in the upcoming weeks of life- especially for those of you like us who cannot do your job (ours being photographing clients). Remember that if we all do our part to help stop the spread of this virus and do our best to remain HOME away from others, the sooner we can all go back to life as usual. Things may be scary, uncertain, and stressful, but don’t lose all hope that you’ll die from boredom just yet.