This has nothing to with innkeeping or restaurants but it might be helpful to anyone who is experiencing sadness, depression or just, in general, being down in the dumps.
That, unfortunately, would be most of us right now, whether out of work, working at home or being stretched to the max and wishing they had invented cloning machines already (that would be me currently).
Ironically I’ve written more blog posts in the last few weeks then I have in months, writing even badly is therapy apparently when I’m stressed.
I count myself lucky that I belong to three Toastmasters groups who meet frequently and am welcome at thousands more clubs around the world as we all moved to virtual online meetings for a while. I get to see familiar faces, interact with them and generally have some fun and it’s excellent to do that but isn’t necessarily fulfilling my full need to interact and socialize with friends. I’m not a social butterfly but there are people I like to get together with and have a good laugh in an unstructured environment.
Last week was my papa-san’s birthday and while all of were social distancing, it’s not like we could go sing him a happy birthday, some relatives and I got on Zoom with him and did so, and then chatted for quite a while, and laughed and then went off on a tangent about science fiction (because we are all fans). What was supposed to be a half hourish call turned into almost 2 hours. I felt pretty good after that.
Today as I went to post some things on a client’s Facebook page, I see my aunt’s posted a meme, one which I can’t resist. “What’s your Dragon name: Your name backwards + the current mood + Hoarder of (the last thing you ate) and (item to your left)” and then I started to read the comments, *jane*The Frustrated Hoarder of,*jane*the Stressed Hoarder of,*john* the Anxious Hoarder of,*jane*the pissed off Hoarder of ,*john*the sad Hoarder of, *john*the tired Hoarder of etc and I “know” people are stressed, upset, stir crazy but for some reason that just hit home even more than usual.
After the couple of weeks I’ve had, I said, “I need a laugh, badly” and posted on my personal page “Who’s online and wants to get together for a quick Zoom call and share a funny video together and laugh. I need a laugh right now. Direct Message me and will share my Zoom link”.
I only had a couple of people see the post and take me up it on but we watched a Carol Burnett Blooper reel on Youtube, together for 10 minutes and LAUGHED together. While I don’t feel 100% better (that would probably take some heavy-duty valium and a nice long Barbados vacation with lots of pina coladas at this point) I DID feel a damn sight better then I did before that.
Not everyone has webcams but most people do have smartphones, make a date with a couple of friends or a group of people and don’t talk (introductions maybe) and find some funny videos on Youtube or Facebook that you can screen share together and just laugh together. Use Zoom or some other application that works for you.
We are going to do it at least once daily and maybe more because laughter truly is the best medicine and seeing and more importantly HEARING someone else laugh is even more contagious then Covid-19 and that’s a good thing. Go forth and socialize and LAUGH!
