Coronavirus blues have you moping? Creativity and gratitude may be the cure
This pandemic is really something. I never thought something so dreadful would happen in my lifetime and affect so many people in the world.
With everyone’s sadness, frustration, anger and stir-craziness, it seems during the pandemic ugly attitudes are often showing up on social media. I’m finding it can be difficult to not let all the negativity get to my head, so I started to research “Gratitude.”
I just was reminded by a local pastor that “declaring what we are thankful for” could possibly cure a bad case of the “ughs!” Or what I call, the coronatudes.
What are coronatudes, you ask? It’s my new term for everyone’s state of mind during the coronavirus seclusion. Feel free to use and spread the term around because I’d really like it to be added to Webster’s Dictionary for 2021.
It’s my new mini goal for the year.
I’ve heard of other people taking time each day to write down what they are thankful for. Then at Thanksgiving, their thoughts can be shared with family.
I was hoping my whole family could get involved with this practice so that we aren’t as pademic-cranky. Here are a few of my coronatude ideas to share with you and your loved ones.
▪ Gratitude journal: Dedicate a new journal book just for this project. Your family can each have one or put them together in one family book. Then you must decide what time every day to do this. If you’re like me and can’t remember anything, set a timer to remind yourself of your daily job. Or if you’re a family that has the luxury of eating dinner together, it might be a great time to share what each person is thankful for.
▪ Journal jar or box: I’m a fan of alliteration, so of course I would go for the jar. On Pinterest I saw many clever ideas of how to make an artsy version for your family. Decorate that mason jar like you have all the time in the world. You remember those first few weeks of quarantine? Or you could take a piece of masking tape with the word gratitude scratched on it, and slap that on your reused pickle jar. Whatever your style, it will work. (But word of warning, that pickle smell hardly ever goes away.)
▪ Gratitude quotes: There are a plethora of quotable people over the centuries who have found gratefulness to be essential in their lives. So many of these are so beautiful, I was thinking of printing them off in a pleasing font and framing them in special places in the house, where I might have time to read. Wouldn’t it be nice to have extra reminders of our 2020 goal of contentedness? Here are a few of my favorites:
“We can only be said to be alive in those moments, where our hearts are conscious of our treasures.”
– Thornton Wilder
“When you practice gratefulness, there is a sense of respect toward others.”
– Dalai Lama
“Be in love with your life. Every detail of it.”
– Jack Kerouac
“Sometimes the smallest things take up the most space in your heart.”
– Winnie-the-Pooh, A.A. Milne
“Gratitude turns what we have into enough.”
– Aesop (of the Fables)
▪ Post-it Note art: If you are a free thinker and want to participate in this exercise but can’t find a jar, this might be for you. Grab a big stack of Post-it Notes and each day write what you are thankful for on the note. Then stick that baby up on a bare wall and voila. After a year, that blank wall that needed a fresh coat of paint is totally covered up.
The main idea of this exercise is to intentionally find the positive in your life and make note of it. It’s important not to repeat your answers. If you had a year’s worth of pieces of paper saying, “I’m grateful I don’t have to eat SPAM,” then the Thanksgiving read-aloud would be pretty uneventful. Feel free to take that gratitude as a freebie from me.
Good luck with letting gratitude help you through the rest of 2020.
Stacey Hatton is a tired old mom and wife, who often escapes the monotony by cruising around Pinterest and imagining new craft projects. She can be reached at laughingwithkids@yahoo.com.
This story was originally published October 1, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Coronavirus blues have you moping? Creativity and gratitude may be the cure."