Does anyone else find that they are feeling a little extra pressure to ACCOMPLISH. ALL. THE. THINGS during social distancing?

I feel like I gung-ho signed up for like 10 different classes, committed myself to practicing an instrument and a language, started doing yoga, and signed up for a virtual walk/run to keep myself moving.

Sorry, I had to pause as I laughed at insane, overly ambitious me from that first week.

I don’t know, maybe it would’ve all been doable if I didn’t still have my job and if it hadn’t turned into a job that now takes three times as long to get done properly as it did in person.

Yay for essentially never ending tech week hours.

But bigger yay for still having a job, so…

I have found that accomplish all the things list has been very useful because sometimes I do need a brain break from frantically converting all my classes to online teaching.

And sometimes that brain break needs to not be Netflix, because there is something about the TV that just ruins my brain and makes it so I’m done concentrating as well for the rest of the day.

So yoga, walks, and instruments during those times it is.

As I’ve started to settle into a little more of a groove though, I finally cracked open one of those classes I wanted to take and I’m actually really happy I did.

If you’re feeling the accomplish all the things pressure, feel free to skip this post, but if you are looking for something low stress and interesting to do during this social distancing time, I’d recommend The Science of Well-Being.

I have a lot of trouble being happy. Like, a lot. Not that that’s unusual with most of us – actually, this class has taught me it’s even more common than I knew.

It’s a class on what actually makes people happy and how to develop a healthier mindset.

I was joking with a friend that it’s considerably crunchier than I am, but in reality, I’ve got an awful lot of crunchy tendencies.

The lectures are largely about dispelling myths and then there is a large journaling aspect. I like the journaling because it’s a concrete goal I have to do every day, and I love me some concrete goals that go on a to do list and get crossed off.

The section we’re on now focuses on savoring and gratitude, because when you actually focus on these things, you can start to rewire your brain (supposedly, we’ll see).

Every day you try to savor a moment and in your journal at the end of the day, you write about it. I struggle a lot with just being present in the moment, so that still needs some work, but finding something to savor is surprisingly easy. A lot of times, it’s a conversation with friends, which I have been really prioritizing each day, but some days it’s just the nice weather on a walk or a good poem.

To practice gratitude, the prompt at the end of the day is to write five things you’re grateful for. I thought that would be really easy, and some days it is, but some days it actually is surprisingly difficult to get further than two or three things without starting to feel like I’m putting cop-out gratitude items down like my health and my family and friends.

Which is also funny to me that I think of them as cop-out answers when, if anything happened to either of those two categories, they would be the most devastating – so maybe even reviewing this course in my blog now has opened my eyes to a few more insights.

Anyway.

I just thought we might be all a little starved for some more positivity in our lives now. The course is easy, you move through it at your own pace, and maybe it has the power to do some positive rewiring and create a genuine lasting change when I rejoin the rest of the world someday.

It’s called The Science of Well-Being and it’s on Coursera for FREE. Check it out, if you want.