Last week, while making a huge batch of Flu Fighter Chicken Soup, I listened in on a zoom call about wellness during stressful times with the always appealing and super productive health professional and wildly active athlete Dr. Jordan Metzel. He will be doing FREE weekly calls on Thursdays at 6pm with various experts followed by a 5:30 exercise chaser (this Thursday will be a barre class with Physique 57).
This is how I found myself smack in the middle of my kitchen on my mat as yoga goddess and all-around amazing Kiley Holiday coaxed me through a triangle pose while I tilted forward just a bit to stir my soup. A new experience for me, as every day must be bringing new experiences for you. To get in on these useful seminars click here to get on Dr. Metzel’s email group and he will send you the free registration link. The next one is in two nights.
While there were lots of takeaways, my most favorite was from Tara Parker-Pope, Founding Editor of Well at The New York Times. She advised that actively practicing gratitude is paramount to our health and well being. It is AS IMPORTANT as sleep, diet, exercise and human connection in whatever form you can muster. Her suggestion? Take those 20 seconds of handwashing you are doing a zillion times a day and swap out the ABC’s for a quick gratitude practice.
Now let’s be real I was not doing the ABC’s during my obsessive hand washing, instead I was singing show tunes “Iiiii recommend biting off more than you can chew to anyoneeeee, I most certainly do…” My plan is to go every other. I timed it and you can crank out quite a few gratitudes in the span of 20 seconds. I think this will be a particularly useful exercise with those with kids in your quarantine mix to offer this as a suggestion.
To be efficient I divided the time with 10 seconds of internal thanks and 10 seconds of external. Of course you can organize your gratitude missives however the heck you want.
My timed 20-second gratitude list :
- I am grateful for my family, my dog, and more time for some of the things I most love time with them, books, exercise, nature, and my thoughts.
- I am grateful for every person on the frontlines of this battle in whatever capacity. Grateful for the time to send a flurry of prayers for those fighting the virus within their own bodies.
Boom 20 seconds. Was gratifying for my brain and my hands. Give it a try! If you feel like sharing with me over email what you are grateful for I would love that too. Your words activate new tripwires in my brain as I sit isolated on a hill with my family and dog in Montauk. Be well. Stay connected.
Linda
