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Hello Sojourners!

I hope this edition of 8 Good Things continues to find you staying safe and remaining healthy. Unbelievable that we have passed Memorial Day still at home. This year it is more than our veterans that I felt we honored. It extended to all the frontline workers that have looked after us these last several weeks, whether they are healthcare professionals, those bringing us our mail, delivering online orders, operating cash registers, or stocking shelves in grocery stores. My heartfelt thank you to all these individuals, as well as my sorrowful prayers for those lost to COVID-19.

I know many of us, myself included, are over the Zoom calls and just want to get onto whatever is our new normal. I am wondering if wearing face masks in public will become law, like wearing seatbelts. I confess to feeling unsettled when I pass a group of people neither physically distancing, nor wearing masks. I am also grateful for every emotional tool and resource I have to get me through these days. I promise I am using them all. In this edition, I tried to find articles that would offer guidance as we start to go outside again, and some ideas on keeping mental health healthy. Toward the end, there are some donation-based online mindfulness classes that I am offering as well.

One other thing. Many know that I am a longtime supporter of Stand Up To Cancer, and love to walk. The day Los Angeles was allowed back on its trails, I pledged to walk 1000 miles to raise $100,000 in support of cancer patients and caregivers with COVID-19. I hope you will consider donating to this cause. It is super easy. Step one, go to my pledge page and decide how much you want to give per mile. Step two, I walk the 1000 miles. Step three, once I complete my final mile, you will be asked for a credit card payment. You can pledge as much as you want, even 5-cents per mile helps a lot. Thank you for giving this a thought.

Click here for my PLEDGE PAGE

8 Good Things is a curated newsletter of inspirational and informational articles, videos, and quotes. If my thoughts about an article or video interest you, please click the ‘source’ button (e.g., NEW YORKER) to learn more. If you come across a story you would like me to consider sharing, please send it to explorer@sojourn-intl.com. This newsletter comes out once every three weeks.

Inquire About Travel Destinations

1 Here’s Why Planning a Trip Can Help Your Mental Health. If there was ever a clickable link for me right now, it is this one! Hint: thinking about trips makes you happy. I know it does me. I was supposed to be in Botswana and Zimbabwe for my birthday on May 22nd, and coming back in time to take a group to Turkey. Like many, the only thing our passports are currently doing is making us wonder when we will be able to use them again. However, some good news for those of us with wanderlust. Just the act of planning a trip and anticipating it, even if it is at an undefinable point in time, brings on substantially more happiness than hitting the ‘1-click’ button on your next Amazon purchase. Planning a trip encourages optimism—couple that with the fact that we tend to expend a lot of mental energy on future-thinking. Ergo, future-thinking around a journey becomes a source of joy because we are anticipating something good to happen. I also like the other point they bring up: people start to ‘consume’ their trip before they even go on it. Enjoying and savoring things like having the perfect Chianti with pasta in Venice. So use this time to learn about a place you would like to visit. Keep your travel dreams alive! I would also invite you to consider what kind of traveler you would like to be post-COVID-19? What types of experiences will be more meaningful to you? I am happy to answer your questions and help you envision the perfect breakaway.

2It Feels Like We Got the City Back for Ourselves. Reflections on major tourist destinations without tourists. Can you imagine having the Roman Colosseum, the Canals in Venice, or Amsterdam’s Red-Light District virtually deserted? People that live around these destinations are re-finding the beauty of the place they call home. Others feel as if they have stepped back in time to a quainter version of their city. Some feel sadness in the emptiness of an area once teeming with crowds. Even though their kids can freely play again. Gardens are being planted to provide food, just in case. Locals are noticing details of their city once overlooked. While some miss the tourists, many do not. Which begs some questions in my mind. When we start exploring the world again, how will we treat the places we are unable to visit now? Will we have a new appreciation for the gift of travel? Be more interested in spending time with the locals instead of observing them like fish in an aquarium? Will we be kinder, more respectful, and open to other ways of life? Will we exchange our Starbucks, McDonald’s, and familiar hotel chains for genuinely immersive, dare I say transformational experiences? I, for one, hope so.

3Face Masks, Blood Tests and Onboard Janitors. Flying’s About to Feel Very Different. First, the bad news, there is a high probability that the era of affordable travel is over, at least for a while. You will have to bring your entertainment and suffice with limited in-flight services. The good news is that there will be less crowded flights. The prediction is that airline interiors will be redesigned with no middle seat use, and they will be more fastidious about keeping high touch areas on the plane clean. Oh yeah, you could be required to have another kind of travel document on you, an ‘immunity passport’ that shows you are coronavirus negative. Spontaneous travel may not be so spontaneous for a while, either.

Inquire About Being Happy

44 Ways to Stay Connected in a Socially ‘Honoring’ World. While we are still being asked to stay safer at home, here are some ways to keep your spirits up. An article I recently wrote.

5Zoom Fatigue: How to Politely Decline a Call During Quarantine. The usual boundaries that once dictated social etiquette around personal time have mostly dissolved. So how do you disconnect? On the flip side of feeling the pull to stay connected is the genuine need to disconnect. I mentioned in the last edition of 8 Good Things that I am crispy by the end of the day. A lot of it has to do with Zoom Fatigue and feel that we do need to set boundaries for our mental and emotional health. We do not have to attend every virtual social call or business for that matter. This article offers ways to decline invitations politely. A suggestion that I do is simply admit that I am overloading on Zoom calls and need the break. People understand and likely feel the same. 

6 The Surprising Science of Happiness. As of May 24th, 18,744,626, people in forty-five languages have viewed this 2004 TEDTalk. Why? Because it is relevant. We all want to be happy, especially now, as we struggle to re-envision our lives in a COVID-19 world. Dan Gilbert, the author of “Stumbling on Happiness,” talks about how we typically think that we will be unhappy IF we do not get everything we want. That would be an erroneous thought, and science backs this up. The reason is that we synthesize happiness. Meaning we learn to like, even prefer what we end up with instead of what we do not. So, if you wanted a red Mercedes and ended up with a blue one, you would come to prefer having a blue Mercedes. This talk is funny and offers some surprising data on what does or does not make us happy, especially when we have no choice about a decision or outcome, kind of like now. I chose this talk because I thought it might offer some insights into reconciling how life will go in the coming weeks and months. I wanted to spend my birthday in Africa. Instead, I was in Los Angeles and had one of my favorite birthdays. If I synthesized a happy day, I am okay with that. It beats being depressed that I could not be somewhere else.

7 8 Ways to Go Out and Stay Safe During the Coronavirus Pandemic. This article makes a point that I have been thinking about lately, in light of states and other countries beginning to reopen. When the HIV/AIDS epidemic was at its height, we had to learn about safe sex because the reality of abstention was just not going to happen for most people. Somewhat similar today. Yes, we will be the safest at home. However, it is not realistic to think that we will never venture outside in the coming weeks and months. I have to go outside every day to walk for my mental sanity. So, similar to safe sex, we need to learn how to go safely into the world again. Think about the concept of ‘harm reduction,’ looking at risk along a continuum to find the best way to minimize it.

Inquire About Media Partnerships

845 New Books You Need to Read This Summer. This reading list just came out on May 22nd. You may find yourself reading more this summer, so I thought I would share this article about new and soon-to-be-releases. Though it is not on this list, I just finished “American Dirt.” If it were not for my book club, I would never have picked it up. However, it is a riveting read about migrants crossing into the US from Mexico. It is a well-crafted and written tale of a mom and her young son forced to make the terrifying journey to the US after a drug cartel kills sixteen members of her family, and are now in pursuit of her.

” Thoughtful

“A single footstep will not make a path in the earth,
so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.
To make a deep physical path,
we must think over and over the kind of thoughts
we wish to dominate our lives.”
~ Henry David Thoreau

The Art and Science of Happiness in Action
Use Your Strengths

First, think about one of your strengths – creativity, kindness, curiosity – and how to use it in a new way today.
Second, take a moment to write about one of your strengths and how you plan to use it today. Then, do it as much as possible.
Third, do this every day for a week. You can use the same strength or a different one.
Fourth, at the end of the week, write about your experiences with your strength. What do you notice? What did you learn?
Why This Works: It reminds you of your positive qualities, which gives you confidence and self-esteem, thus increases happiness.

Levity

A Flamboyance of Flamingos
Stunning images of these oddly beautiful, sometimes funny creatures.

Sojourn Programs

All through June, as a way to stay inspired, to be resilient, and to stay happy, I am offering donation-based online courses.

Mindful Creative Writing Salon | Weekly
Fridays, 12:15 – 1:30 pm Pacific Time. Suggested donation, $12 for each session.

Being Resilient Practicum | 4-Week Series
Saturdays, 10:30 – 11:45 am Pacific Time. Suggested donation for the series is $40, $10 for each session.

Mindfully Happy: Creating Your Inner Sanctuary
Tuesdays and Thursdays for two-weeks, 6:30 – 7:45 pm Pacific Time. Suggested donation for the series is $45.

All are welcome. Sessions via Zoom. Donations are not required, though much appreciated.

Part of The Sojourn Experience’s mission is to help our community cultivate a healthier mind, body, and spirit. While we are all staying a social honoring distance apart, I would like to share some other offerings to support your at-home self-care.

First is a downloadable PDF guide and recording to my Love, Gratitude meditation practice. Two things we can all use a lot of right now, and always.

Second, you can enroll for free in my online course, Happiness: Art of Life Balance.

Stay safe. Stay well.
Maria and Team Sojourn
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