Got Cabin Fever? Feeling Stressed? Here Are Some Resources To Help Remedy That

Resources.

I figured that we could all use some resources to help ease our stress during our current times. Last week, in Tuesday Truth #57, I shared some of the ways that I plan to maintain my sanity during my time at home. Be sure to check out that post if you’re looking for ideas.

If you’ve followed my blog for any length of time, then you know that for a few years I have chosen a “word of the year”, a word chosen to sum up the direction that I hoped to take for the year. In 2019, I chose “bloom” since I was putting myself out into the world in new ways. For 2020, I decided to follow the floral theme and chose the word “prune”. I addressed it in some detail in my, Four Years of Blogging, reflection post.

In order to make way for new growth, I needed to “prune” what was no longer serving me. Quite a bit of that was located in my inbox. However, one area that does serve me is the area of wellness. Wellness encompasses many levels. I’ve read it broken into anywhere from 6-9 areas. And while all of those are important, today I’m sharing about some free resources that I’ve learned about that will help combat stress.

Meditation.

I am a huge fan of meditation. I am both a science lover and a believer in magic. Meditation fills both of these for me. There is scientific proof to back up its claims, but there is also the unexplainable spark of magic that you experience in your journey with it.

I have participated in many of Oprah & Deepak’s 21-day meditation experiences. Currently, they are doing one that is the #HopeGoesGlobal movement. Today is Day 2, but unlike many of the experiences, the prior days will be open for the entire 21 days. You can find more about joining here.

For the past two years, I have tuned into the Tapping World Summit. Tapping, aka EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique), is a healing technique where you tap on the meridian points while focusing on the negative issues/feelings and then move through to rewire the brain to healthier thought patterns. (This is a very simplistic explanation, of course. And if you are interested in learning more about it, there are many great resources.) The Tapping Solution shares some scientific studies about how it works. They also have some free meditations and have also opened up some of the mediations on their app for free during the current times. You can find those here.

Many of you may have heard of the Calm app for meditation. They also have a resource page of free meditations. You can find those here.

More Wellness Resources.

Gabby Bernstein is also offering a free anxiety relief workshop on March 29th. You can find more about that on her website which can be found here.

One of my favorite resources for all things wellness is MindBodyGreen.com. They always share tons of free information. And currently, they are also offering community classes through Instagram Live and IGTV. You can find more about that on their Instagram page.

That’s all that I have for resources in this area at the moment. If you have any that you’d like to share, drop them in the comments so that everyone can benefit!

Personality and Character Strengths Resources.

So this isn’t exactly helping on the stress front, BUT it may help with the cabin fever.

I love, love, love understanding what makes things tick. I love the human mind. I love the intricacies of what it takes for a human body to function. I love watching nature unfold in its magic, majestic way. I love to work at understanding something.

Which is one of the reasons that I love these free tests.

16 Personalities is my favorite version of tests based on Myers-Briggs. I have taken many versions of the Myers-Briggs tests and mine has always been the same. INFP. Yep, I’m part of the 4%. I made everyone in my home take the test as well. I live with (in random order) an INTJ, ENFP, ESTJ, and an INTP.

Have you taken a Myers-Briggs test?

Do you agree with its conclusion?

Dare to share?

VIA Institute on Character looks at your character strengths. I actually took this one a few years ago and recently took it again. The character traits stayed the same, but some of the lower ones came in a different order. However, the top 3 stayed the same. #1- Love of Learning (self-explanatory). #2-Appreciation of Beauty & Excellence (from nature, to art, to math, to science, to everyday experiences). #3.- Honesty (speaking the truth, but more broadly presenting oneself in a genuine way; being without pretense).

Part of the reason that I’m sharing mine is that before becoming confined, I chose to join Marie Forleo’s B-school. I have some goals that I’m pursuing and could see the benefits of what I might learn. In my deep dive in searching for my “why”, I went back through some of the character/ personality strengths tests. There was also a segment of people that I reached out to asking them this same “strengths” question. And while their responses are private and something that I treasure, I can share that many of the overlapping comments touched on some parts of those strengths listed above.

High 5 Test is another free test that I took. I wasn’t prepared to delve into the Strengths Finder test and just wanted to see if this showed similarities to my other conclusions. My top 3 were: #1 – Thinker. #2 – Storyteller. #3 – Philomath (now I know some of ya’ll probably have heard of this word. I hadn’t) which is a love of learning new things.

So I think it’s pretty obvious that I love to learn new things. And then I love to share them with all of you!

If you decide to take these tests, I’d love to know how they turn out for you! Drop me a note in the comments.

Reading.

I already had a pretty lofty goal for reading this year and am now finding myself with more space to spend achieving it. I shared what I had read for the first two months (plus some backlogged reading) in the post: What I’ve Been Reading Lately: January/February.

Originally, I was only planning to share bi-monthly, but since we all likely could use some titles to read, I’ll be sharing that at the beginning of each month for the foreseeable future.

Be sure to drop some titles of your favorite or current reads in the comments. I know that I’m always looking for something to read next and I’m sure many of you stopping by would love to learn about some new titles as well.

Flash Fiction.

Lastly, I’m considering sharing some pieces of flash fiction on the blog. Many of you may remember that during my yearlong #thisis40 set of 30 days challenges, one of those months was 30 days of daily writing.

For that month, every day I wrote for 20 minutes. I actually set a timer and free wrote whatever flowed through my imagination. Some days were painful and very little flowed. Other days, I kept writing after the timer went off. I’ve shared before that I have dreams of writing a novel. It’s probably my greatest dream and yet I never pursue it.

I am no fool. It is FEAR that holds me back. My imagination is a great source of comfort to me and allowing it to be judged is scary. However, in order to grow, I need to move beyond that. I watched a great MarieTV interview with Elizabeth Gilbert, that I’ll link in case you are interested, that has given me a new perspective.

Since we could all use little moments of escape from the current outside reality, I am thinking about an occasional share from that month of writing. Just as they were freely written. Not changed. Not polished. My imagination wanders down many corridors. 2018 was very different than our current reality so I will be selective in my sharing choices since some flashes are not so far removed from the present. I may even dip back into sharing some pieces of creative writing from high school and college or maybe even create something new. Who knows?!

Tell me what you are doing to combat cabin fever.

**I’ve decided to update this post if I hear about something that I think may be helpful. **

Audible has just made many of its titles available for free. For as long as school is closed, they are open. I know many of you may have children at home and no way to access any new reading due to libraries and bookstores closing. Just today, Miss Sunshine asked me about books today since she is already getting cabin fever and Virginia has closed schools for the remainder of the school year (not sure what that means for her Sophomore year of high school or the Dual Enrollment Math she’s taking through her Engineering program…but I digress). I’ve checked the site out and it ranges from the littlest to the teens, along with classics and folk & fairy tales.

Let your light shine!

Amy

*Today’s header photograph is of Mabry Mill. It is one of the most photographed stops along the Blue Ridge Parkway. For more photos, you can check out my post about Mabry Mill. I also have other posts about spots and hikes along the Blue Ridge Parkway if you’d like some virtual travel while stuck inside.