• Annalee Shein, LCSW, CPC
  • 561-220-3556

LIFE GOES ON! Even during COVID-19

ADVERSITY CREATES STRENGTH!
Let’s look at some of the great positives that can come from this very difficult time. Spending more quality time with your children, family. Finding immediate, creative solutions that can still be used once this crisis is over. You might even find a new career that you can do from home, in the future…

Here are four proven ways to overcome adversity:
1. Surround yourself with positive people. Be selective with the people you surround yourself with. …

2. Write. There is something so peaceful in writing down your thoughts. …

3. Be in nature. Nature is very therapeutic. …

4. Start investing in yourself.
How are we dealing with not being able to visit our loved ones in nursing homes, assisted living facilities and hospitals.
Buy an Echo Show tablet from Amazon. Ask the facility if they will let you bring it over and hand to staff to give to loved ones. You can have virtual visits. How great to be able to use in the future, if you can’t get to visit!
Call more often.

Have children write letters to their grandparents and draw pictures. Take some photos on your phone. Print them. Call facility to ask if you can drop off or actually mail them! Children can always continue to do this.. Call the facility and ask if they might give you some first names of residents that would love to get a letter or drawing. We are then teaching our children about sharing love. PUT A SMILE ON SOMEONE’S FACE!!

Everyone will feel more connected! Think of how special and wonderful the soldiers felt when they received Pen Pal letters from home and strangers!!

Working from home!!!

Create a quiet space you can get your work done… DON’T get lazy. Get up at a scheduled time, take a shower and get dressed as if you were going to work. It motivates you. P.S. don’t forget to eat your breakfast. (Have the kids help make breakfast then clean up, before the days schedule starts.)

If you have children:

Sit them down and plan a time schedule. This is for them as well as yourself. It is imperative to be organized. Make sure to have enough time to do your work, as well as some well deserved quality time with your children..

Homework time

Play time

Plan some time to do a project together

Exercise time (take a walk, together, bike ride)

As reported in 2020, 5 million employees (making up 3.6% of the entire U.S. workforce) work from home for at least half the time. The number of regular telecommuting employees excluding the self-employed population) has grown by 173% since 2005 but the numbers have only skyrocketed since then with the pandemic we are facing.

Laid off and no work!!

This is the time to sit yourself down and really look at your skills. So many of you get bogged down with long time jobs we forget what else we might be able to do! Take this time to Google : “Jobs you can do from home.” You might be surprised how many they list. Some might be things you can do w/o additional training and some you might have to take a course online. You might be very pleased at what you find!

Unemployment Rate in the United States averaged 5.75 percent from 1948 until 2020, reaching an all time high of 14.70 percent in April of 2020 and a record low of 2.50 percent in May of 1953… Unemployment rose higher in three months of COVID-19 than it did in two years of the Great Recession. The COVID-19 outbreak and the economic downturn it engendered swelled the ranks of unemployed Americans by more than 14 million, from 6.2 million in February to 20.5 million in May 2020.

Bartenders, beauticians, barbers listen to their client’s “woes” all the time and give great feedback. Well, wouldn’t they make great life coaches. They might as well get paid for it. Just sayin!!

Children at Home:

When they ask questions about what is going on.. Be as honest as possible but try to give as little facts as possible as not to frighten your child. Reassure them that, though this is a crisis, there have been similar ones before, and we all got through this and we will get through it again. Encourage them to take advantage of the time at home, as explained earlier. Projects, quality of parent time, cook with your kids, etc. If you can hug them, then do so.

Mental health problems affect one in six children, and rates go up during community crises. Specifically, a higher number of children develop: anxiety and depression.

IN GENERAL!!!

For those that are retired or don’t need to work, keep busy. Catch up on those books you wanted to read, or paperwork that has piled up. There are many online things to do to be healthy and keep busy. Online yoga, exercise, meditation classes you can take. Call friends you haven’t spoken to in a while as we were so busy. Aren’t we lucky we live in a time that we can stay so connected with cell phones and fairly inexpensive electronics.

And remember, by finding a new way to overcome this adversity we are living in now, think about how strong you can become

STAY CONNECTED!

To learn more, call (561) 220-3556 schedule a free 15 minute consultation!

With light and peace,
Annalee Shein

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