I'm not going to lie, it's not easy in these times to always be positive, but as a generally positive person, I thought that I would share a few of the things that I'm doing now to stay positive. Some of these tips are things I do all  the time, but I can assure you if you start to implement some of these into your routine, little by little, you'll feel the positivity coming.

Daily Gratitude: Even now, there is something that happens to you daily that you can be grateful for. Maybe it's  something small like some flowers in your garden, a new show you found on Netflix or a quick call with a friend, but be grateful. I find that the smaller the things you can find to be grateful for, the more general enjoyment you will have. Not everything has to be amazing and huge to be grateful for, last week I was so happy for my oatmeal that was perfect!

Get dressed: I know that it sounded like fun when we all started working from home to work in our PJ's, but getting dressed every day is the 1st step to feeling normal. Working from home may be your new normal, so make a routine of it, wear pants, brush your teeth and run a comb through your hair, you'll feel better about yourself when you look in the mirror.

Stop trying to be perfect: Online you're seeing all these people who are baking perfect loaves of bread, making beautiful cakes or home schooling their kids from their incredible home classroom. You don't have to be Instagram perfect, you kept yourself and your kids alive today, you did it! You're winning at life, stop comparing your time at home to how others are spending their time, do what feels right for you and do something small to move that needle every day.

Think of others: Every week I choose 5 people or families who I can give a moment of happiness to, maybe that's delivering some cookies, sharing a some puzzles or games, having a phone call, writing a letter for fun mail, or making videos of George doing magic tricks. When you focus your time on how you can make someone else's day better, you're not thinking about yourself for a while and it's easy to be positive when you think of how happy you can make other people!

Take up that hobby: Do you have something that you've always wanted to try? Maybe it's learning how to play guitar, woodworking, a physical skill like hula hooping, reading those books that have become dust collectors on your shelf or if you're like me, you like to crochet to make things, I've moved into some new crochet skills with slippers and baby yoda dolls recently, spoiler alert for my family for Christmas! YouTube is a great place to learn a little something that you can try as a hobby.

Find something to look forward to: I get it, we've all given up a lot to be home, we've already missed 2 trips and I think that at least 4 concerts will be cancelled, but I know that a lot of those things are still going to happen. I often find that the planning before a trip is a big part of the excitement. So chat with your friends and family and make plans for when we can see each other again, plan a BBQ, a trip, a fun day or even what you're going to do the first day you take your kids and leave them with Grandma and Grandpa.. The anticipation of greater times to come will help you with your positive thoughts.

If your'e still having a hard time with what you've lost during this time, I find it helps to look back at old photos and remember the good times that you've had in the past. I know that my photo roll on my phone is always good for a few hours or laughs and memories, share those memories with people who were with you, send them the photo, send a video of yourself remembering those times, you'll be happy you had those times to keep you going when it's harder now .
There is no light without the darkness, so embrace these times and know that there will be better times soon and we're all in this together. If you find these tips helpful, please let me know and if you still need help to find positiviity, please reach out, I'm always here to chat and have some positive conversations.