Calm You Shall Keep and Carry On You Must. Yes, Hmmmm. (Yoda)

I overstate the obvious when saying it’s a hard time to remain calm. I’m not brave enough to ask what *else* 2020 can bring because life and irony always have a way of saying “Well, did you think of THIS when you asked what else 2020 can suck at?” 

If horror movies have taught us anything, people ask questions like this right before they A) get murdered or B) it starts raining gigantic, rabid, biting frogs on them during a random bike ride.

Er, you know – something like that.

Maybe it’s just me, but you get the point. 

Needless to say, it’s a hard time to remain calm. 

Calm You Shall Keep and Carry On You Must. Yes, Hmmmm. (Yoda)

I used to think I was calming myself by playing games on my phone or watching mindless Netflix shows. While those activities can be calming, I think my problem is that rather than using them as tools to calm my mind, I use them to escape what I’m feeling, or to avoid dealing with stuff I need to do. What’s weird about it is that I feel so much better when I just deal with things on my list. Also, rather than avoiding feeling, to heal we need to feel what we’re feeling, right? 

I titled this with Yoda’s quote because I, like most of us, continue to look for things to remain calm and happy during these crazy times.

On the flip side, sometimes we need to get angry. Getting angry about injustice is what helps us to become actively involved. So there’s that.  

It’s hard to stay calm through grief, anxiety, and wondering how in the world we’re going to keep everybody happy when whatever version of school comes much too soon. I’ll likely feel as if I’m starting middle school with my son because I’ll be the most-of-the-time teacher and task-maker while working at my job and trying to remain calm about not getting The Rona. 

I don’t have the answers to staying calm, obviously. I mean, it’s hard for me to even meditate correctly. 

How to become calm, indeed.

Just thinking about it makes me anxious. Today’s hail storm didn’t help, although I was really happy we were home and not running errands during it.

We’ve been going for a lot of bike rides, and that helps.

Last night, Tucker and I saw an antelope that didn’t even twitch at seeing us. Just stood there and stared.

I felt calm, and that feels like a start. 

What about you? How do you calm yourself and manage self-care during these crazy days of 2020 that we all want a “do-over” button for? 

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This has been a Finish the Sentence Friday post with the prompt of “Staying calm…” When I came up with this one, I thought it’d be pretty different, but it seems fitting during the pandemic, although actually writing this felt weird and like “I DO NOT KNOW HOW TO STAY CALM” when in fact, I do, especially when making eye contact with an antelope.

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