How far do you want to go (grow)?

It's pretty hard, maybe even impossible, to go where you want to go right now.

You want to keep away from Covid-spreading events, keep your distance, and heck many of us barely leave the house. We have groceries delivered, we work online, and we even attend doctor appointments online. There is very little that leads us to leave our homes.

That said, there are things you can do to go and grow. Imagine you are somewhere cozy or exciting. In nature or on the road.

Where will you be?

Some people wear masks while hiking or biking, but in the Pacific Northwest winter is just now ending so unless you’re a hardcore sportswoman, the snow, rain, and freezing temperatures might have prevented this in the recent past. But now the crocuses are blooming! Spring is nearing. And walks, hikes, and rides are much more possible.

Some people go for drives. Pack up some snacks and a mug of coffee or kombucha and head toward the coast, the hills, or Snoqualmie Falls. It can be quite soothing to get a change of scenery.

Some of us get lost in faraway books on audible, going to old Chicago’s World’s Fair in The Devil in the White City or traveling old Asia Minor, Detroit, and San Francisco in Middlesex.

And some people take to the road in RVs like Camille and Bryce, Kelly Beasley, or Gary and Stacey in RV Nomads on YouTube, or Robin Barrett who wrote Be a Nomad Change Your Life, or like me. I travel the country, safely viewing the Grand Canyon in a mask away from other people, camping in Yellowstone with bison bumping my motorhome, and cruising along the Trail of the Ancients in Utah.

It’s not the same as freely wearing no mask and going anywhere you like, for a breath of fresh air, visiting friends, sitting in a pub or fine restaurant. But it brings me a sense of resilience and health and confidence.

How far will you go?

How far do you want to grow?

I provide EMDR and therapy to my Washington clients online from my camper, helping them work through their traumas, anxiety, anger, and distress to build their resilience and see their true, unbroken, growing selves.

Contact me for a free consultation, where we can see if I’m the right fit for you, and give you some tips to get you feeling whole again.

Feeling exhausted?

This time, right now, is one of the hardest in generations. It’s normal, you are normal, for feeling incredibly tired. As women during Covid, we are tasked with more and more of the heavy lifting.

In addition to homeschooling, working from home, and managing the bulk of keeping our house running, we're also coping with increased health anxiety, isolation, frustration with those who refuse to mask up when we need to go for groceries.

Ours were the jobs more likely to be lost or cut back this past year. According to the National Women’s Law Center, 100% of jobs lost (140,000) in December 2020 were women’s. This unemployment will add to the gender pay gap going forward - another worry for our future.

If we have children still at home, online schooling and/or homeschooling generally falls to us, since we tend to be the primary caregiver of our kids. This means figuring out how to teach, how to manage lessons, how to get our kids to do the work, and how to keep it all together so this new weird school we are so sick and tired of doesn’t increase the friction of quite literally never ever being apart during quarantine.

We are also, of course, the primary housekeeper, because hey, we’re at home so we should have time. And then we see our social media friends designing home improvements, baking bread from scratch, and crocheting blankets for anyone and everyone.

While we’re doing all this, we’re coping with worry about our health, our family’s health, and that of our parents and grandparents. If following protocols, we haven’t seen or touched our parents in over a year! We can’t go to the library or concert or movie house. We are stuck in a box either alone craving touch, or with our family craving space apart. If we pick up our groceries in person, no doubt we’ll encounter at least one person making a statement by not wearing a mask, potentially infecting us all.

The fear and worry are thick. As for me, I feel like every cell in my body is tired. Weepy tired. The only solution is rest. Rest without guilt.