Monday Minute #2

Cultivating Daily Moments of Optimism

Let’s be real: this is exhausting. As we shelter at home — either solo, or with roommates or family members — we’re all trying to adjust to online working/teaching/learning, become Zoom masters, exercise in confined spaces, remember to shower, craft edible meals, keep one another safe and healthy, and not get too gloomy as we absorb daily statistics and timelines.

It’s okay to feel anxious, sad, afraid, irritable, annoyed, lonely, and utterly fatigued at times. This is hard, a lot remains unknown, and our energy is depleting more rapidly than usual. But here’s one idea to help us tend to our mental, emotional, and physical well-being. Let’s consciously cultivate daily moments of optimism.

Each day, let’s try to notice, pause, and appreciate when we feel glimmers of joy, positivity, surprise, or wonder. This can be as simple as:

• Laughing out loud at a funny Instagram meme
• Finding a long-forgotten favorite t-shirt at the bottom of a drawer (because we haven’t exactly done laundry lately)
• Concocting a new recipe (out of limited ingredients) that actually tastes amazing
• Realizing that being forced to communicate virtually is allowing us to highlight one of our unsung strengths (perhaps communicating in writing, or helping someone else through this, or solving problems creatively)
• Re-discovering neglected knickknacks, talismans, or other forgotten items in our homes — perhaps a travel souvenir, a gift from a friend, a concert ticket, or a cool memento of a fun adventure

As tumultuous as this unexpected life experience feels right now, let’s strive to value daily moments of optimism. Perhaps this ordeal will help us — in the future — be better at pausing and more deeply appreciating small joys that we take for granted in our normal warp-speed lives.

**My glimmers of positivity today: listening to a new song posted by singer Michael Stipe on R.E.M.’s Instagram (and playing it 459 times in a row); noticing a clock made out of the book, The Professor’s House, that I completely forgot I had in my apartment; and finding a tiny vase in a junk drawer that says “simplify”