Life in the Slow Lane

Contemplating life, faith, words, and memories

Tag: coping skills

Prescription for Cabin Fever — March 18, 2020
cabin fever, log cabin, cabin

Prescription for Cabin Fever

/Sherrey Meyer/13 Comments

Experiencing a bit of cabin fever? Government restrictions related to the coronavirus bugging you? Looking for a quick cure for cabin fever? Keep reading! 

Today we bring an expert to the blog to share tips for coping with cabin fever. Our expert has four years or more under her belt of being confined. Chronic pain has been her nemesis, but her tips will apply as well to cabin fever patients.

Here’s a list of helpful tips and hints for coping with the frustrating symptoms associated with cabin fever:

  1. Grab a good book and start reading. Need help finding a book? Check out book descriptions and reviews on Goodreads.
  2. Do a jigsaw puzzle. It may seem a bit old-school, but they can be lots of good fun unless you have cats who want to help!
  3. Schedule a movie and popcorn night. Especially popular if you have children around.
  4. Call a friend or two you haven’t touched base with in a while.
  5. Get out some board games or a deck of cards.
  6. Sort through old photos.
  7. Try a new hobby, like knitting, crocheting, stained glass, writing poetry, or Sudoku.
  8. Pour through cookbooks looking for a new recipe to try out.
  9. Start pre-spring cleaning. That way you won’t have so much to do when the good weather arrives.
  10. That home improvement project you’ve been postponing is something you could work on.
  11. How about adult coloring? Check out these sites for good resources to get you started: Johanna Basford, Colorit, Art Is Fun!, and The Spruce Crafts.
  12. If you’re a TV watcher, catch the newest season of your favorite show on Netflix.
  13. Begin researching family history and start a family tree.
  14. Plan a weekend getaway for after the restrictions are lifted.
  15. Enjoy reading aloud rather than alone and silently? Maybe this is a good family activity if you have young readers.
  16. Get some form of exercise. If you can get outside and continue social distancing, take a short walk, say 15 minutes. Or perhaps you have some slightly never used exercise equipment you could put to good use. 
  17. Continue to engage your faith or spiritual life through reading and/or prayer, or both.
  18. Think about that spring garden. Perhaps it’s time to draw up a plan for what you want to plant and how.
  19. Give in to that power nap. It’s amazing how much that few minutes improves your attitude.
  20. Try meditation.
  21. Plan and treat your family to a picnic. Cook up hamburgers and hot dogs and all the fixings. Then spread a cheerful tablecloth or blanket on the floor and get out the paper goods and plastic forks and knives. Add some chips and condiments and have fun!
  22. If you’re a writer, try writing in a different genre than usual.

And lastly, remember to practice kindness even if you are self-quarantined with your family–may be just you and your partner or spouse, and maybe a few kids, or some other configuration of family. Spread kindness even in these different and difficult times.

kindness, quotation, cabin fever

Image attributions:
Featured image: David Mark from Pixabay 
Quotation: Random Acts of Kindness 

Dealing with Unmet Goals and Expectations — March 3, 2018

Dealing with Unmet Goals and Expectations

/Sherrey Meyer/12 Comments

Dealing With Unmet Goals And Expectations

When I began (1).png

How do goals and expectations go awry?

You set goals and make New Year’s resolutions. January comes, and it goes. Soon you feel less than productive. In fact, you’re somewhat depressed at the progress you’re not making. You start checking up on the goals and/or resolutions you made. Expectations haven’t come to fruition. What you wanted to accomplish hasn’t come to pass.

Now you feel guilty that you’ve let 31 days slip through your fingers. You rake your fingers through your hair and moan. Chastising yourself doesn’t change anything. It really boils down to commitment.

How do you commit to something so intangible?

The word “commitment” invokes a promise, an obligation to do something that will show tangible results, right? Goals, expectations, and resolutions are not tangible. So, to whom or what are you promising you’ll do this thing?

In the first place, I don’t make resolutions and rarely set goals. Each year I usually choose a word to underscore my motivation for the year. For 2018, I selected the word “fearless.”

Focusing on writing and working in fearless anticipation of completing projects is supposed to keep me writing and moving forward each day. However, I look back on January and consider it a bust.

I had committed to completing a couple of essays, posting on the blog at least once each week, and sending out my newsletter the third Wednesday of each month. In addition, I wanted to continue researching my novel, developing my characters, and hopefully starting the first draft. If I were to give you free run of my laptop, you’d not find any of those commitments completed, either partially or in total.

What happened to good intentions?

You may ask yourself this question when everything seems to fall apart. Usually it’s the result of distractions or interruptions. Here’s what happens to me most often:

  • Something didn’t meet my expectations and/or something caused me to start questioning my own value, worth or ability.
  • When this questioning persists and I begin to believe that every day will look like the last one, discouragement sets in and it seems nothing will ever get better.
  • Then I lose my focus on that special word, “fearless,” the word that is supposed to keep me pushing through these feelings of discouragement and what I see as failure.

But all is not lost. Discouragement can be a gift.

As strange as it seems, there can be gifts along the journey of discouragement, fear of failure, and lack of success.

Discouragement will uncover those expectations. When I expect something to happen a certain way and it doesn’t, I’m disappointed. My whole being gets sad, and I cease to function in a productive way.

Next, discouragement has a way of showing up and teaching me about my misplaced trust. Everything writers do related to success is also connected to reports from Google or other social media about algorithms and the number of followers, number of comments, etc. When these numbers don’t measure up, I feel a sense of worthlessness because I must not be providing what my readers are looking for. Where have I placed my trust? In things that are fickle and unstable. Perhaps I should place my trust in God, someone I know I can rely on to keep things on an even keel.

Discouragement has also taught me how to define my worth. Am I more concerned with success because I’m writing “fearlessly,” or because of success-by-metrics? If by the first, then I am truly worthy of that success. It’s solid.

It has also revealed my control issues and who or what I listen to. I believe that what I can control allows me to direct the outcome of that project. If I work hard enough, strive enough, and push on through, I’ll be successful. This is not always the case. And that’s when I realize I need to buckle down and try harder.

I tend to read everything I can find on writing and how to improve and be successful. Reading is a beautiful thing, and I love to read. However, reading isn’t going to be the factor that makes me a successful writer if I allow reading to distract me from my focus. Reading what others have written on writing is a good thing unless it takes over and pulls me away from my writing.

So, you see, discouragement and feeling less than successful can actually open your eyes and gift you with the knowledge that you need to pick up, learn from this disappointment, and move forward.

Have you experienced recent disappointments or unmet expectations? Would you mind sharing in the comments or if you prefer use my Contact Page to email me?

 

Header Image Attribution: Viktor Hanacek via Picjumbo