Creative Ideas to Help Move Through Life’s Storms & Promote Growth, Healing, Connection & Acceptance.

 

This month’s theme is working through crisis. This is one in a series of three posts addressing Crisis Management and Recovery.

This article offers ideas of things TO DO, some solo and some with your family, to help shift refocus your attention in productive ways. I suggest you print it. Add to it. Make it your own. Share ideas with family and friends. It is helpful to surround yourself with people driven to inspired action, rather than uninspired complaining!

    • Tend and Befriend. Look for ways that you can show up for another. Tending to someone else’s needs is a way to feel purposeful during life’s more stormy moments. I’m not talking about “people pleasing” here (which means focusing on someone else’s needs to the determent of your own). This is about showing up for someone who is suffering through their own unrest, or is experiencing some other form of distress that you can assist with.
      • This is also an opportunity for the engagement of the Goodness that lives within us all.
    • Spend time in Nature. Appreciate Nature’s Beauty and the Gifts she has to offer.
    • Forgive yourself for the ways in which you may have initially jumped into panic mode. It can be very challenging to not get sucked into drama or Mob Mentality, especially when in the initial states of fear.
    • Keep your Judgements in Check. During chaotic times it is easy to Scapegoat and find someone to blame – politically and culturally. This isn’t the time to blame anyone, especially those on the “other side” of your fence. Check your prejudices at the door. Don’t spew hate. It doesn’t help, and it teaches your kids that it’s okay to say mean things about those whom we perceive as different, no matter where their differences lie.
      • Don’t bully with your words. Be mindful of what you say and how you say it.
    • Re-engage with Relatives and friends. Connect. Slow Down. Make that call. Reach out to a friend.
    • This can be a great time to Create a Back to Basics Plan. When the need for protection gets triggered we tend to move into a more protective role. With the underlying fear and anxiety regarding our political climate, and the spread of this “novel” virus, our leaders have not been able to reassure us that we are safe. When safety is threatened we revert back into protection mode. When we regroup, and take care of our basic needs like food, shelter, and prayer, a greater sense of safety begins to take root.
    • Let’s also use this time to take better care of our Relational needs. In the midst of our busy-ness, with kids sports, work, travel, perhaps we haven’t been doing such a good job taking care of our need for connection and family time.

    • Re-engage and reconnect in new ways. Think about what you value and use this time to help model and talk about those values with your kids, spouse, neighbors, and friends. Engage in things
      • Eat Meals together as a family. Appreciate not having to rush through things in order to prepare for another activity.
      • Play Games together: Sorry. Clue. Card Games. Yahtzee. Connect Four. Checkers. Chess. Guesstures. Charades.
      • Make a list of activities, places to see, movies to watch, books to read. Cut them all out and put them in a jar. Pull an activity every weekend.
      • Create a Project together: Cook. Build a Birdhouse. Plant Flowers.
      • Make Music Together. Listen to music together.
      • (Kids love “Dance Parties”. Simply tell them you are going to have a dance party. Turn on some lively music and start dancing. If you have music makers like those little shaker eggs, rattles, drums, get them out. Move. Shake your booty! As Taylor Swift says: “Shake, Shake, Shake it off.”)
      • Read aloud to each other: Adults and kids!
    • Video / Digital Gaming
      • Parents tend to have a love/hate relationships with video games. I invite you to consider viewing them a little differently. For many boys these are Hero’s Quest type activities.
      • Take some time to sit down with your kids and let them show you their characters. Observe how they play. Talk to them about their quests and objectives. Enter into their world for a little bit. You may be surprised (in a good way!) what you find there.
    • Teaching and Learning.
      • Learn something. There are lots of on-line ways to learn these days. Ted Talks. Brendon Burchard offers lots of great videos. There are plenty of spiritual teachers out there as well. Find your favorite and be willing to listen more deeply.
      • Teach something. Online. To your child. To a friend. Take what you have learned and lead an online book club. Discuss it with a friend.
      • Let your Child Teach you Something! Kids love to teach adults. This helps build their self-esteem and confidence.
    • Share stories. Tell family stories. Has there ever been a time when your family needed to overcome an adverse situation? Talk about how they got through it. This helps build resilience; both in the storyteller as well as those who are listening.
      • Have your kids share a story about something they have seen on YouTube, or heard in school where someone has overcome adversity. If they don’t know a story have them find one and share it with the family.
    • Walk together. Spend time in a park; at the beach; in your neighborhood. Make time to go outside. Walk in a forest.

  • Purge and Reorganize. Purge. Go through closets and other storage areas and get rid of what you no longer use. Redesign a Closet. Reorganize your Garage. Have the kids donate old toys to Goodwill.
  • Find New Ways to Connect with others through Giving Back.
    • Have your kids create / color pictures for People in Retirement or Nursing Home facilities. Go to a shelter and Walk a Dog. Skype, Zoom or Facetime with relatives out of town.
    • Deliver food to the elderly. Shop for your more vulnerable neighbors; walk their dog for them.
  • Uplevel Your Trust – Trust in the HS – Holy Spirit – Higher Self / Trust in God / Goddess / Creator / Angels / Saints / Boddhisattvas / Buddha / Allah / Divine Intelligence / Trust in the Natural World / Trust in the Universe. Uplevel your trust in your connection with the essence of life itself.
  • Focus on what you are grateful for.
    • Before going to sleep focus on 3 Things you were grateful for during your day.
    • Make a gratitude list. Stick it to the fridge. Add to it daily.
    • Write your gratitudes on a piece of paper. Fold them up and put them in a jar. Pull one out each evening at dinner or before bed.
  • Pray. Pray in new ways. Pray in old ways. Say formal Prayers. Create your own prayers. Create and offer blessings to each other; to people in need; to friends and family.
    • Bless your home. Bless the yard, the trees, the animals, each other.

Remember the saying, “It’s the journey, not the destination?” At some point you will get to the other side of this. When you look back on this time, how do you want to view yourself? What did you learn about you? How did you engage with others? What did you model to your family and friends? What did you learn about you?

Here are links to the two additional posts on the topic of Crisis Management and Recovery:

Hope this article offers a few useful ideas to assist you in better understanding, healing, and inspiring others to more mindfully adapt to whatever life throws your way.

If you have any questions, comments, or feedback, feel free to reach out.

Until then … Live Passionately, Lead Respectfully, Love Courageously!

Dr. J