hello friends i hope you're all hanging in there it was like seven months ago that i made my 12
things to do a social distancing video now not only are we gearing up for a second wave and
putting some of those restrictions back up but the days are also getting shorter colder darker
the economy is tanking they need relief shame on the republicans shame on the democrats and shame
on this president so first of all vote there is a link in the description with information for
your state and after that let's take a moment for ourselves and think about how we can prepare for
winter what one time tasks can we check off now and get them over with like getting our flu shot
scheduling a dentist appointment or buying some vitamin d supplements and what routines can we
start establishing now before we really truly need them thank you to book of the month for sponsoring
this video we're going to take it over to our senior book correspondent patrice thanks patricia
as many know autumn is the ideal season to cozy up with a good fiction book so generally i do prefer
reading paper books i've just been settling for ebooks since quarantine started because i couldn't
get to the physical library so you might not want to be going to physical bookstores at this
time and maybe shopping for books is just like decision overwhelm for you book of the month is
a perfect way to discover books from new and emerging authors it is a popular and quickly
growing online service where they vet hundreds of books each month and give you a selection of new
and early release titles to choose from if you're anything like me someone's you read more
than other months sometimes you go weeks without reading and then other weeks like last week for
example i literally was reading at a pace of one book per day so if you're busy one month it's no
problem you can always skip that month's book and not be charged you also just get great prices for
really high quality hardcover books i mean look at this one i would literally put this one just on
a shelf as decor it's 14.99 per month but you can get your first month for only 9.99 using the code
book up for october they have a historical fiction literary fiction thriller contemporary fiction and
fantasy my favorite was the last one the fantasy one if you want my recommendation so yeah lately
i've been reading mainly like non-fiction personal development books and maybe you as a viewer of
this channel can relate but fiction reading is also important i think i was severely undervaluing
it it improves your empathy it makes you more emotionally intelligent there was actually a
study done in 2013 at the university of toronto where they examined how short fictional stories
compared to non-fictional essays affected participants need for cognitive closure
don't worry this was a new term to me as well basically it says cognitive closure is the desire
to reach a quick conclusion in decision making and an aversion to ambiguity and confusion and
what they found was that the people who read short stories needed less cognitive closure so they were
more open-minded more thoughtful and more creative so yeah that was my advertisement for book of
the month and also my advertisement for reading fictional stories so on this particular evening
i was taking senior portraits for a friend and i had a little bit of time beforehand so i just
tidied up my room okay we'll go play spotify okay google okay google okay google is dead
okay google okay google back when i had a carpet in here i tried to vacuum regularly
just because you're supposed to vacuum regularly but like it didn't look any different afterwards
just kind of fluffed it up a little bit now that i have the wood floors it's crazy how
much dust and little pieces of paper gather and you can really see it now so
i took some time to listen to some music sweep the floors and clear off my desk
this is the first plant i've had in a while because i've murdered a couple of plants so
i thought i should take a little break but i feel like i'm ready to give it another try and i heard
that this one's pretty easy to take care of it's supposed to grow really long so i'm excited about
that because that's kind of the effect that i tried to achieve with my fake ivy on the wall
i want to go on more walks outside while the weather's still nice i guess once it's
winter i can just put a coat on um but the senior portrait shoot was outside and he had some really
beautiful scenery so that was my walk substitute for the day i keep forgetting how beautiful
madison really is i always feel like i gain a new appreciation for my city whenever i take photos
hi the tree chase vlog hey guys welcome back to my channel
oh this is backwards i want to show you a couple of new additions to my room since i did my room
makeover one of those like mid-century modern things i might actually turn off the lights
yeah i feel like you can get a better idea of it i still have to get light bulbs for it i got the
two new pillow covers and then the headboard the headboard was way cheaper than i thought
headboards would be so i think i got this for about 75 and i'll put the link in the description
then i ordered this poster that's like a black and white map of madison i thought it would be a nice
little sentimental touch especially once i move out oh my gosh i think i just broke a leaf of the
plant sorry um but it'll be a nice little memory of where i grew up i'm also waiting for this
macrame plant hanger to arrive for my plant oh oh i forgot this little guy this is for sitting on
you can sit on it or you can rest your feet on it you can change light bulbs with it
after i came back i was very tired and hungry so i sat down to eat dinner and i put on that day's
jeopardy episode i've really been thinking about like the value of tv i don't think you can really
say that tv is bad because it's like well what are you watching when are you watching it with
whom are you watching it and so for me i found that tv can be a really valuable way to relax and
like decompress in short bits of time i think tv gets too much of a bad rap sometimes okay here's a
tip this is the best piece of advice you're gonna get on this channel black tea i like the holiday
flavor even though it's not yet the holidays let it steep for a while and then add coconut milk the
kind that has sugar in it or you can just put like honey or maple syrup otherwise it is so good let's
get some mood lighting okay google wait i forgot google is dead i guess i have to do everything
myself because i can't do voice activation after that i was all socialized out from
the photo shoot so i went up to my room to spend time with my favorite person myself and just read
so of the five books that i got my favorite was the invisible life of addie larue it was so good
i kind of regret reading it in one day because i wish i had savored it more and read it more slowly
but i guess i can always reread it it was just so so so so so so good then i convinced my brother to
play among us with me which i'm still not great at but everything takes practice and again it's
like the tv thing where we get the idea that video games are like purely bad and purely a distraction
and yeah of course it can be unhealthy but i think it can also be a little dose of fun in the right
quantities and so yeah playing with my brother i feel like is one of the ways that i've just
been trying to enjoy life more because i've been realizing that if i don't make time for that and
i focus on nothing but achievement like what's the point of that i'm eventually gonna burn myself out
look at this after that i started on my official bedtime routine i brushed my teeth did my skincare
routine i updated my day one journal on my phone where i like to just write a couple
of sentences about what i did that day and then i journaled in my paper journal i've
always had morning and bedtime routines so not like since birth but a long time before kovid
and i think it's especially important now because they really serve as my anchor so
my morning routine is pretty much a 100 success rate my evening routine
is a little more challenging to stick with especially if i'm feeling down like it's ironic
because that's when i most need my routines but it's hardest to get myself to do them
so yeah i encourage you to create rituals of your own as we head into the winter season
as difficult as it may be i know to try and slow down and flow with the energy of
autumn obviously it won't be possible to do a long relaxing routine every single day but
hopefully you can pick bits and pieces of it and just create something fun for you
and try and practice it as often as you can that's the end of this video i'm
going to sleep now i hope you all stay safe and healthy and happy and i will see you next week
bye
you