How is everyone holding up? Take a brief moment to check-in with yourself. 

How is your body feeling? Restless?

How is your mind feeling? Stressed out or fearful?

These are all normal emotions to have; don’t be ashamed of feeling them. It’s important that we acknowledge our negative thoughts or emotions, rather than suppress them, so that we can work towards replacing them with more hopeful and joyous ones. 

Let me give you an example: like everyone else, I have been feeling the effects of this pandemic on my mental health. I want to take a moment to acknowledge my privilege. I am so grateful to have a loving family to quarantine with and a business that I am able to continue, but even so, it’s natural to feel anxiety or a sense of grief during this time of uncertainty.  

Like many of you, I have also been using this extra time at home to catch up on movies, TV shows, and music that I have been meaning to explore for months. I think this quarantine has given us all a newfound appreciation for the arts. And then I got to thinking… what if instead of mourning all of the things we don’t get to do right now, we started acknowledging the unique opportunity we have to create something amazing?

Think about it, this extra time is a unique opportunity to tap into our creativity and start a project that we wouldn’t have been able to take on otherwise. Think about the Oscar award-winning screenplays that may be written during this time. Or the woman who may pick up watercolor painting as a way to pass the time and love it so much she decides to become a professional artist. Ten years from now, you may be cooking dinner, singing along to an album that was written during this quarantine.

After I acknowledged the negative emotions I was feeling, I was able to move onto a new one: excitement. The excitement that we may be on the brink of a modern Renaissance. Now isn’t that more enjoyable to think about?

So here are my challenges for you: 

1. Acknowledge the less-than-ideal emotions you are feeling so that you’re able to move past them.

2. Spend some of your free time this week on a creative project! And if you need a little inspiration, I’m including some links below.

Follow the Let’s Make Art channel on Youtube and follow along as Sarah Cray creates stunning designs using watercolor.

Work your way through Beadaholique’s Intro to Beading 101 course.

Writer’s Digest posts a new creative writing prompt every week. Or, sign up for Daily Page and get a different writing prompt in your inbox every day for $5 a month.

Try your hand at creating a stunning one line drawing.

What are you going to spend your time creating?

Mind your strength,

Melanie Shmois