Hi, I'm Annie Georgia Greenberg and I'm a producer at Refinery29.
My favorite part about my job has always been that I get to travel to some seriously cool
places.
But now, not so much.
I know how lucky I am to be healthy and to be able to work from home, especially when
that's not the case for so many.
But I'm still struggling to feel normal.
So I figure if I'm going to be here in my living room,
I might as well, with your help and with the help of some intelligent professionals, figure
out how to be happy, or at least slightly less miserable during a global pandemic.
If you're anything like me lately, the mornings have been a struggle.
I wake up, I check the news,
and I immediately downward spiral.
Luckily, I've been hard at work
developing a foolproof coping system.
Step one, just because you wake up doesn't mean you have to get up.
So stay in bed.
Just stay there.
Stay in bed as long as you want.
And while you're there, girl, let it the f**k out.
Cry.
Cry harder.
Cry so hard
you might throw up.
Find a window.
Look out the window.
Remember human touch.
What's everybody else doing?
They're baking bread.
Can you bake bread?
Try to bake bread.
Step 14?
You know what?
Baking's never really been your thing.
Order some bread, disinfect the bread.
Watch Tik Tok.
What is Tik Tok?
Should you be on Tik Tok?
Get back in bed.
That's right.
You're back in bed, and that's when you'll realize this isn't working.
Who are you?
I'm your inner strength.
Isn't that like, incredibly cheesy?
Totally.
But, sweetie, we're in a bit of a quarantine situation right now and this is the best I got.
So I'm just going to need you to go with it.
Fine.
Great.
Time to call a professional.
Hi, I'm Dr. Amy Przeworski.
I'm an associate professor at Case Western Reserve University and I specialize in anxiety
and depression.
Doc, you got to help me.
I am freaking the bleep out.
Please tell me what to do to maintain my sanity.
So a lot of people are feeling exactly how you're feeling.
And I think it's pretty normal to feel a level of anxiety
right now.
So the first thing is just to recognize it's okay.
But there are still some things that you can do to try to kind of reduce some of that anxiety
and worry, just so that you feel happier right now.
Hold up.
Before we go further, I should just say that this advice is not therapy and should not
take the place of actual therapy.
Okay, continue.
So have a schedule, but make sure that your schedule is something that's realistic.
This can help with things like sleep.
So good sleep hygiene means going to bed at the same time,
waking up at the same time every day.
Exercise is something that's very helpful.
Meditation can be incredibly helpful.
And we know that it's something that reduces anxiety and stress.
Being altruistic is another thing.
So helping others and then you can also focus on things you're grateful for.
So just focusing on one or two things a day that you're grateful for can really help you
to focus on positive aspects of your current life as opposed to getting lost in all the
negatives.
I love what you're telling me, but I
do have my doubts.
How can writing in a journal really change who I am and how I'm thinking?
So there's a lot of data that suggests that if you change your behaviors, it changes your
mood and it changes your thoughts.
So if I do it, I'll believe it eventually?
Exactly.
It's not going to be a sudden shift.
It's something that's a habit that you kind of need to change.
It's as good a time as any to practice, practice, practice.
I'll keep my fingers crossed.
Perfect.
I will be doing them right along with you.
And I will look forward to hearing how they work out for you.
Okay, first things first, a realistic schedule.
9:20, open emails.
9:22, let's slack a coworker.
In 2018, The Lancet Psychiatry published a study that linked having a daily routine to
improved sleep, a better sense of well-being and even better cognitive functioning.
But just remember, these are not normal
times, so you're going to want to set a reasonable bar and be more realistic.
Oh, make it realistic.
Better.
Next step, mindfulness.
The science is abundantly clear when it comes to meditation.
There are hundreds of studies that show that it improves your mood, your general outlook,
your sense of well-being, your cognitive functioning and your memory while decreasing stress, depression
and anxiety.
It actually changes the makeup of your brain and can improve your physical health, too.
If there was a pill that would do all that you'd take it, right?
Luckily for you, all you have to do is—
Shh.
That was easy.
What's next?
Gratitude Journal.
Okay, I'm grateful for my health and the health of my loved ones.
I'm grateful for this apartment and the light through the windows.
I'm grateful for the light everywhere.
I'm grateful for the light in the park.
I'm grateful for sunsets and the fact that they keep
happening every single night.
I'm grateful for space.
I'm grateful for movies about space.
I'm grateful for gravity so I'm not in space, and I'm here in my apartment.
Doing this, writing down just a few things you're grateful for three to five times a
week, is clinically proven to boost your sense of well-being and your interconnectedness.
It also could have physical improvements for your body.
Speaking of body, time to move it.
Everybody knows that working out is good for you.
There are hundreds of studies that prove
its benefits.
But did you know that even just a 10 minute sweat sesh can give you the endorphins you
need to feel good?
Good.
Because I'm over this.
Okay, you can chill because next up, is altruism.
Being altruistic.
No one's done more research on what doing acts of kindness can do for you than Dr.
Sonja Lyubomirsky.
And to her, timing is everything.
In her book, The How of Happiness, she suggests that you should challenge yourself to doing
five acts of kindness on one day for the maximum
feel good boost.
And just remember, no acts of kindness are too big or too small, and you should mix them
up so they don't become an honest chore.
In that case, I'm going to donate to Covid relief,
try to talk to isolated seniors.
Well, thank you for sharing those memories with me.
Buy a present for my nephew,
bake for my neighbors,
and write a thank you note to the staff of a local hospital.
I just finished my five acts of kindness and I gotta say it feels pretty good.
So you're happy?
I'm getting there.
It's safe to say that I started this week with a spiral, and I think that's okay.
After talking to Amy, I felt better about having these crazy mood fluctuations and feeling
weird about this weird situation that we're in.
But I am dedicated to trying every day, every hour,
every 30 minutes.
Little by little to hack my own happiness and get back on track to some semblance of
normalcy.
I'm also dedicated to doing five acts of kindness on one day every week for as long as we're
in this thing.
And that's where you come in.
Show me, tell me in the comments below how you're giving back.
Then maybe we'll all be slightly less miserable during this global pandemic.
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Go ahead, I got all day.