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Oh The Frustration...How Can I Help Myself?

Okay, so we are into another wave of the Coronavirus pandemic. Talk about stress. Wow. Who would have thought it? How much longer will this go on? So what can we do to relieve the stress that we feel? Which I define as See Trials React Exercising Smiles and Strength. What I mean by this is, we can think of the pandemic as a trial (tribulation) that we can react to negatively or positively. We can see it as something we can learn from instead of seeing the doom and gloom, woe with me, I have all these bills and no way out attitude. Yes, it would help if everybody wore a mask to save the lives of themselves and the people they come in contact with. And yes, it would help if we had an immediate vaccine. But we can only control ourselves. We have to deal with the here and now. What each of us are going through in our day-to-day lives. 

We can take this situation we are all in and find a positive in it, which is what I mean by exercising smiles and strength. It is hard to put a smile on your face when you are in a negative situation...you frown, right? In this case, if you can find something good that has come out of the pandemic then you can be positive and have a smile. The positivity can make you stronger. There is a saying my mother told me as a child....you get stronger in the break. When a tree limb is broken, or when a tree is damaged, that tree limb grows back stronger than it was before. The part of the tree that was damaged grows back thicker. The same thing can be said for the situation we are in. I am sure there is something this pandemic has forced you to do that you have never done before. For example, you have either lost your job and/or working reduced hours, like me. This may be the first time you have set down and taken a good analyzing look at what you spend, and how you can cut back.  I am sure you learned something from it. This can be seen as a positive. The pandemic may have forced you to shelter in place with family and friends, giving you an opportunity to spend time with people you would not have...normally (if the pandemic had not occurred). Having conversations with people, learning about them/yourself, cleaning the house, finding other ways to enjoy yourself (card games, pool, board games). All these things can be seen as a positive. Something to make you smile and give you strength to endure whatever comes your way. 

How can you use this situation that you cannot change, to make things better for yourself? Well you can start by following your passion. What do you enjoy? What are you good at? For me, I enjoy being on the internet. I know I have to supplement my income. So I looked for things that would pay me to be on the internet. I discovered Inbox Dollars and Swagbucks. Both these sites will pay you to take suveys, play games, watch videos (some videos play automatically). The pay is either in giftcards like HomeDepot, Paypal, or cash. There are different ways to earn points and money on both sites like accepting offers or scanning your grocery receipt. Swagbucks has a live trivia game app called Swagbucks Live which is usually played at 8pm EST weekdays with ten questions, that are sometimes themed (really fun!). There are other websites that will pay you to be active on the internet or be a tester (Usertesting), you just have to do your research. There are people that make a part-time or full-time income on these types of sites. It can be done, but it takes time, patience and consistent daily use. I make money every month, it is not a great deal because I do not do as much on each site as I could. But it is money I did not have before, and it helps with my bills.  Try it for yourself. You may find that you like it. Find something else you enjoy. It may have been a hobby that you did in your free time, before the pandemic. Take this time to explore it. If you are a photographer for example,  you can upload your pictures to a site that will pay you for them. The other question is, What are you good at? For me it is writing. I was always told I was a good writer and I enjoy it, but I didn't have the time. With the free time I have on my hands now, I became a freelance writer for Textbroker. I am paid for articles, blogs posts I write. The amount of money you can make depends upon the ranking your writing is given 

(I can write for you also). There are other freelance writing sites on the internet like Fiverr and Upwork. Do you like to draw? That is very relaxing. You can become a pencil artist and sell your drawings on sites like Amazon.

Maybe you like arts and crafts, cooking, gardening, or explaining how to do something.
Look into it and see how you can make money at it, like starting a blog or making a youtube video. You can do whatever you want to do. You just have to believe you can do it. 

The second thing you can do to make things better for yourself is to just take a step back and relax. We can't change this situation (the pandemic). We have to wait until it is over. We are used to getting things quickly because of technology. We can buy things online, get food delivered, get in our cars and get what we need. This virus has stopped that...our routines as we know it. Now we have to take a step back and figure out a "workaround". How do I accomplish what I need to do? This is what I mean by relaxing. You want to have a clear head. It is going to take some time to think and figure out what you want to do. You can read through the posting I did on positive encouragement to get some inspiration. You can do it. It will be alright. This too shall pass. 

If you change the way you think (the way you see a situation), you can handle what you are going through, and make it work for you. You can learn how to relieve your own stress.