#1 Is necessary.

It’s harder than ever to write or do anything these days. It’s harder to believe in anything good anymore as COVid-19 keeps spreading, people are suffering, losing their jobs, and others are dying alone. I cannot imagine being young and growing up during this times.

However, we should never lose hope. We have to remain positive and believe in ourselves and others.There are so many positive things happening while the bad it’s still spreading.

For example, today when I read this (here) I smiled. Because, some of us do take care ourselves really well. We keep our health a priority and make sure to take care of our bodies as well as our minds. Results don’t lie. It’s unfortunate though, that it took our own health and our immune system to recognize that things need to change. I feel deeply saddened and I send my condolences to those who to hear that their family members have died alone in hospital beds.

Before this epidemic became a worldwide pandemic, there were things we were taking for granted. And I guess mother nature, has its way of showing us. I know I was taking things for granted, and I will never do it again after this is over.

What are you grateful for?

I believe been grateful has always kept me going through hard core life situations.

Childhood traumas, my parents divorce, living in different households with different family members; I was the unwanted bastard child, cleaner, cook and babysitter of my sisters. Not to mention moving to Canada not knowing English or French and leaving all my family and friends behind, being bullied throughout high school and college, then surviving Cancer at a younger age (thanks to my mom), living in Harlem trying to pursue an acting career and almost got molested. Then going through a break-up last year, adjusting to single mom and creative entrepreneur life and raising my two toddlers (co-parenting) while building a startup with no money; and making sure my family are well who are taking care of my mother who is suffering a terminal illness early-set of Alzheimer’s and dementia at 55 years old (last stages now). I pray every day that she doesn’t get this virus because I cannot imagine her living this earth and me not be able to be there for her.

We are all going through some form of hardship right now; very heavy emotional discomfort, seeing or hearing painful situations in the news, how bad things are getting, and fast. We cannot lose hope, which is why writers and content creators around the world are releasing free content, free tips and info daily. Keeping the positivity and the spirit up is so important! Man, that’s what I’m doing in social media , my team, here and in our blog.

The more people reach out to us through DM’s and comments, the more we know it is our duty as creative healers, scientist, life coaches, content creators and artists to keep inspiring and be an example. Honestly, I cannot sleep or eat properly knowing that there is someone out there losing someone they love to COVID-19 or worse being alone and thinking that they are. You’re not alone.

At the same time, we are all dealing with the fact that we’ve been so programmed to think that things are or – “supposed-to-be” a certain way, that at this moment, fear of the unknown is keeping us stuck and unsure of what exactly we should be doing.

The weeks of quarantine are becoming harder for many of us. Meanwhile, for others, it’s like these weeks of isolation are like any normal day for them. Or “this is the perfect thing I needed to reconnect with my family again”, or “learn new things that I always wanted to do”. In other words, our mind is our beacon of light for progress but only if we are willing to make that shift.

Yep, it has always being your choice. Follow your heart.

But first, a couple reminders because the more we practise these, the faster we all can survive this and get back to growing and evolving human beings. Let’s do it smarter, because now we know better.

• Isolation: Stay home and save lives. If you’re sick, you need to seriously isolate yourself. Have someone get your groceries and throw out your trash. DO NOT GO OUTSIDE (!) until you do 14 days of isolation.
• Social distancing: 6 feet between people and at home. Stay digitally connected though. This is hard time for all of us. Stay strong by keeping communication flowing and reaching out to your loved ones. Nobody deserves to be alone or die without at least knowing someone cares. Show someone you care and if you know someone is sick, make sure you help them any way you can. But, keep your distance.
• Health: Make sure while you are at home that you keep your immune up. Wash your hands, couch on your elbow, don’t touch your face and drink your multivitamins plus vitamin C. Another way, it’s by trying to reduce stress. Anxiety and depression are common during this time; which is why for your mental health, stay in (virtual) contact with people. If your lucky, you might even be able to do this with your therapist. But not for most of us, so you make sure that you keep your mind and body strong and stimulated.

These are some guidelines, to protect you and others.

None of us know for certain what else is in store for our future or the whole world for that matter. So, being anxious, depressed or not “feeling it” is alright for a couple of days. It’s normal, we are in quarantine. However, If you’re still in this mindset, you will need to make the shift soon. April is here and today heard on the radio that this might be prolonged until July…There goes our summer being suspended…

From this morning: (I write things in my journal that I’m thankful for every day. Try it, I promise. It’s happiness at your fingertips)!

• Coffee in the morning.
• Playlist on my phone and listening to the radio.
• Meditation/Yoga
• Spending time with my daughters. Keeping in touch with friends and family.
• Sleeping
• A soothing breeze when I open the window. Smells like summer. Seeing the pink full moon with my girls the night before and wake up at 5Am and admire its beauty.
• Sunshine and Moonlight view from my apartment window (no balcony).
• The ability to work from home-in pajamas. Writing, creating, painting, doing what I love and help others heal the best way I can.
• A healthy body, healthy family and kids. Dancing.
• A good book
• A warm bed.

I’m not saying, “Hey!, get it together, start doing something now or else”… No, we are all in survivor mode, we all deal with stress and painful situations very differently. In the meantime, I want you to try and see things from a grateful point of view. Because I feel that the more this virus continue to spread, the more people need to hear and read positive and uplifting stories, words of healing, and how to learn to move forward together.

Remember, that you are home so someone else does not die. Nurses and doctors are risking their lives to keep us safe.

Today I want to remind you of why you should be grateful for what you already have and let go of the ego-me, hustle hard mentality. Be present, do you, and reach out when you need help.

1. You’re alive and breathing.

You got a roof over your head, a warm home, food to eat, drinking water, and people who love you (friends and family). Then, keep in my that you have it better than most. You have good health, dreams and goals still within you to explore. Get to know the real you or those you’ve been neglecting because “I have no time”. Well, now is your chance.

2. There are good things through all of this chaos. We will be stronger despite of it.

We have to seek from within and believe in ourselves. Especially in difficult times. Reach out to those who are in worse conditions than you and try to help as much as you can.

On the Internet, we are witnessing kindness in its purest form during Isolation and social distancing. For example, the Good News Now community on Facebook. It was created by someone I consider an amazing mentor and good friend Samantha Kris, when all this started. They share only positive and happy news.

I’m really grateful for all health practitioners, recycling and garbage trucks workers, supermarket clerks, pharmacist, delivery people, teachers going online to teach students, people going out of their way and donating to causes for kids not to be hungry at this time.

There are so many things to be grateful for, learn to use this time and recognize that and just be thankful that you have access to things, or that you can witness through your phone, laptop, computer or TV, these earth angels trying to keep us safe and happy right now.

3. Keep positive by surrounding yourself with positive and uplifting people.

The hustle mentality has changed to:

Eat with your friends, don’t compete with them. The hustle now is against poverty, not friendship. _AO

I never realized until a few weeks ago, but I’ve good mentors and coaches surrounding me on my social media, network events I attended, people I’ve met that became loyal and good friends. Then we didn’t see each other as much. But we will always support each other. We had each other’s back.

It really is important that you surround yourself with people who are positive, inspiring and are adapting to change. Leaders of tomorrow. So if you’re reading this, and you’re feeling uneasy and uncomfortable, that means your circle of friends or the people your following are damping your growth… something needs to change.

These time are for reflection, for figuring out what we really want to do with our lives, spending our time with loved ones and succeeding in our careers or whatever your personal goal is.

4. Now, it’s the perfect time to work on things we love and help others find that as well.

I truly hope that we never see a pandemic like this again in our lifetime.

We are all feeling it and still pretending we are super burper okay with this! Let’s come back to earth people, and concentrate. Let’s put things in perspective. There is a crucial part in all of this… we are meant to pause too. Spiritual awakening for all of us requires stillness and reflection. In other words, whether we like it or not, we are all meant to recap, adjust certain patterns and adapt to changes that must be made in order to keep moving forward together as “intelligent” human species.

We are here and we are the ones that will survive this and write on books and teach others how to survive a worldwide pandemic .

We are all chosen and are being tested in order to move forward until the next phase.

5. Our precious life on earth is to respect her, treasure her, not over consume and deplete her resources.

Nature it’s teaching us all a lesson. We are all responsible for our own understanding of this and shift our subconscious to progress differently. This experience, trust me, my girls will remember these days. But it’s up to me, how will they’ll remember it. I know now more than ever, how important it is to spend our life’s doing something we love, that makes us feel joyful and alive.

(Financially, for the whole world this is fucking hard) but our health is more important than money.

We need to protect those who are most vulnerable.

Nothing else matters.

The world will be there when this is all over.

For those surviving now, let’s call these future months. “Embrace the Suck”. So let’s embrace our quirky, imperfect , fun and loving human selves made of stardust from our home! Yes, 4 weeks in, plus April just started and I’m sure it’s being difficult for most, but we must stay strong, stay home and keep healthy.

Be grateful for what you already have. ?

Be grateful for being alive right now and be surrounded by your favourite peeps ❤️

By Angie Abreu Olivo -Founder, Creative Entrepreneur and Environmentalist Single Mom. Edited by Vanessa Hasid.

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