Tag: coping

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag. 

Today’s tip is to contact someone you can’t be with to see how they are doing.

One of the things I did early on in the pandemic was reach out every day or two to a few random people in my contact list. The pace of things slowed down across the summer, but I decided to have a few more in-depth conversations, rather than just a “how are you” query.

I opened up a Facebook Messenger conversation with a friend recently, reaching out to see what they were up to, and how life was going. Across a few days, we exchanged numerous messages, touching base and having a conversation around the rest of our busy lives.

On one hand I enjoyed the chance to reach out to someone and contact them. It was good to catch up and see how life was getting along.

On the other, this brought some sadness, as I had planned on seeing this person across the summer, which didn’t happen. With the prospect of months more of living like this, I’m disheartened that I won’t see this person for awhile.

Not a great coping day for me.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag. 

Today’s tip is to discover your artistic side and design your own Christmas cards.

I’m not a big Christmas card sender, but years ago I used to produce a letter for the family that we sent out to extended family and friends. It was a quick look at life on the ranch. At some point, I stopped doing it, but I decided to try and cope a little this year by restarting this.

While we haven’t done a lot this year, we have spent time together, and life has changed for us, albeit a bit strangely. I’m here all the time, which is good for family. So I gathered together some photos from the year, and put them together with some words and a digital Xmas card.

I’m not sharing the words here, but I’ll include the design with the photos.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here. All my coping tips are under this tag. 

Today’s tip is to enjoy new music today. Play, sing, dance, or listen.

I enjoy lots of types of music, and I often look to grab something new from Spotify while I’m working, letting a particular album play through, or even going through the works of an artist, familiar or brand new.

Recently I was re-watching The Chappelle Show online, and in the 2nd or 3rd episode of the show, he has Mos Def on as a guest. I do enjoy rap, and I realized that I had never really heard much from Mos. The next day I pulled up his catalog and let us play through while working.

I love a smooth, continuous rap artist that brings a melody and a rhythm to the words. Mos Def does this, and I enjoyed hearing him entertain me for a few hours. If you like rap, and haven’t gone through his stuff, give him a listen.

I started to add a daily coping tip to the SQLServerCentral newsletter and to the Community Circle, which is helping me deal with the issues in the world. I’m adding my responses for each day here.

Today’s tip is to join a friend doing their hobby and find out why they love it.

Joining someone else isn’t really a good idea or very possible during this time. Colorado is slightly locked down, so it’s not necessarily legal, and likely not a good idea to join someone else.

However, my daughter picked up some supplies and started knitting recently. I decided to sit with her a bit and see how the new hobby is progressing. It’s something I’ve been lightly interested in, and it looks somewhat zen to sit and allow your hands to move along, building something while you sit quietly. I remember reading about Rosey Grier picking up the hobby years ago.

I have done some minor paracord crafts, usually making some bag pulls for the kids I coach. This was similar, and while I don’t need another hobby now, I enjoyed watching her work.