Tips & Tricks
Jo Eckler
A Buffet of Ways to Survive Your Pandemic ...

This year's been rough—really rough—for a lot of us. And now we’re heading into a time that's challenging for a lot of people in a good year, and even more so when we are facing all the weirdness and losses of dumpster fire 2020. So how to cope? Look, I’ll be real with you. There's nothing that's going to make things awesome. There's nothing that's going to make things the same as they used to be. What there can be is something to help us muddle through and get us into next year, which hopefully will be a little brighter.

A Buffet of Ways to Survive Your Pandemic Thanksgiving
Tips & Tricks
Jo Eckler
Social Distancing Tips from a Professional ...

So you’ve decided to (or been forced to) do the kind and socially responsible thing and stay at home while COVID-19 rolls up into your area. Thank you for helping slow the spread and flatten that curve so our hospitals and other resources can try to keep up with the demands on them!

But now what? After that glow of doing your part to save humanity wears off, what on earth do you do with these days and/or week ahead? How do you emotionally and mentally get through it?

I’m going to share with you everything I’ve learned from my experiences as 1) someone who works at home; 2) a hard-core introvert; 3) someone living with multiple chronic illnesses; and 4) a licensed clinical psychologist.

Social Distancing Tips from a Professional Introvert Spoonie Shrink
Do the Things
Jo Eckler
What My Mom Taught Me about Being ...

We grow up in all kinds of environments. You might have heard people talk about not knowing what a healthy marriage looks like since their parents didn’t have one. That goes for our dreams as well! If we don’t have a model for what’s possible, our dreams might be tiny. (Not that there’s anything wrong with tiny dreams! They can be really achievable and satisfying.)

Here are three types of models we might have for careers and dreams.

What My Mom Taught Me about Being Multipassionate
Do the Things
Jo Eckler
The Perfection Dragon Will Hoard Your Dreams ...

Dragons hoard, right? There are so many images of them curled up on a pile of gold and gems….which can’t be all that comfortable! So many lumps and hard surfaces and pointy things.

In my own life, as well as with my clients, I find it helps to personify things. In this case, let’s call perfectionism the Perfection Dragon. It hoards, it’s dramatic, and it symbolizes something mythical.

The Perfection Dragon Will Hoard Your Dreams (and Three Reasons Why)
Do the Things
Jo Eckler
Your Mind Will Tell You These Three Lies (and ...

It’s harder than it sounds sometimes to just do stuff…we can have hobbies and business ideas that we adore, that light us up and make us bounce a little in our seat.

And then we don’t do them.

We think about it. We talk about it. We might even make a list of steps or materials that we need.

And we stay on the couch or in the bed or work late at our day job. Because, you know…one day.

Why do we do this to ourselves? Why do we deprive ourselves of what we want and need most? Minds are so tricky! Here are three lies they like to tell us that keep us from doing what we love—and the antidotes.

Your Mind Will Tell You These Three Lies (and Here Are the Antidotes!)

feelings

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Spoonie Holiday Survival Guide Part 3: Holiday Feels and How to Deal

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Spoonie Holiday Survival Guide Part 3: Holiday Feels and How to Deal

Last week I talked about how to plan for all the things that there are to do during the holiday season. There’s plenty of those! And if that’s not enough, there’s also an awful lot of expectations floating around about how we’re supposed to feel.


It’s even in the language we use (I’m speaking for the U.S. since that’s my experience): Happy Holidays. Have a Holly, Jolly Christmas. Peace. We even get told how much noise to make—Silent Night. There are pictures on TV and social media of people being loving and cuddly. There’s an assumption that everyone has a family to go to, that everyone wants to go to their family, and that every family is welcoming. AND that when we get to that family, we will all have a good ol’ time and get along in our matching pj’s.


Yeah, right. That utopia exists in Hallmark movies but not most places. What feelings are realistic for the holidays? ALL OF THEM. It’s not like we enter some wormhole on Thanksgiving that takes us outside of being human beings until January 2nd. We’re just as human in December as we are any other time of year, and that includes having all of the thoughts, feelings, and reactions that are part of the human experience.


So what to do? Here are four things to try out this holiday season and beyond.