Your life experience may be difficult and uncomfortable right now due to this year’s pandemic, but this is no time to allow a setback in your health and vitality.  As people who want to restore vitality, we do not focus only on food and supplements but also lifestyle strategies for a healthy mindset and healthier emotional responses.  Check out the suggestions below to stimulate your thinking and build a determination to beat boredom. 

1. Be generous and reach out to others in creative ways:  A colleague of mine sent me, to my complete surprise, a Thank You card. The card and envelope were decorated with stickers and cute calligraphy. Inside the card was a Starbuck’s gift card.  To whom can you send a gift card today?
2. Get masked and gloved up and go visit a senior citizen today: In the picture above is my longtime friend and client, Ann (Yes, she gave me permission to use her name and photo). Per her senior housing rules, we have to meet in the parking lot. It did a lot for our vitality as we had a great time laughing and talking in the sun.
3. Dress up even if you have nowhere to go: Taking a clue from Ann (see above) – she says it makes her feel good to put on her earrings, bracelets, makeup and rings even if she isn’t going anywhere. It gives her more energy. As one who conducts coaching and counseling sessions virtually via FaceTime and Skype, I hold myself to the standard of looking professional and not overly casual and I can attest that it helps very much. 
4. Listen to a positive podcast or a Facebook Live presentation with answers you need right now: Break the monotony and allow yourself to be infused with hope and creativity. My friend and colleague Chuck Balsamo (see the Chuck Balsamo Page of Facebook) turned me on to his energetic Facebook Live show. Do you need a business podcast? Check out Peter Wilson’s Biz and Life Done Well – https://bizmktg.com/podcast/ Which podcast or Facebook Live have you been meaning to listen to but have been putting off?
5. Grab a millennial and have him/her teach you how to make a new TikTok video (or just have fun watching them): I had never heard of these until my oldest daughter not only taught me what they were, but made a couple of them that gave me a good belly laugh! What do you think about making a TikTok dance video with your spouse or children or by yourself, or tackling a DIY project?
6. Do something unique that will get you outdoors: This year I am doing a virtual 5 K with an organization I support called Reality Sports – See https://www.realitysports.org/5k  I like their strategy – “getting you from the couch to a 5K” Each day you get off the couch and practice in order to train for the outdoor 5K, June 13-26, which you run along or with a friend and record the results for Reality Sports. Lose weight, gain physical and mental energy and win for a good cause!
7. Create and/or prepare a new meal: There are great cooking videos online.  Try your hand at something you have never done before. You might purchase a colorful, healthy eating magazine for delicious ideas. I made braised lamb shanks the other day. It really worked.  I tried to prepare scallops the way the head chef at my favorite restaurant (Andaluca’s In Seattle) makes them and that didn’t work.  (waiting for this pandemic to end!) If you’d  like, put your cooking  activity on a video and send it via text and/or social media. And send us (Vitality Enterprises, Inc) a picture of your work.
8. Garden: Start an indoor garden of fresh herbs or go to your favorite gardening store and buy pretty flowers that you admire and plant them in your yard. Don’t forget to take a picture and send it to brighten someone’s day.
9. Get on the phone with a true friend, a real supporter. Don’t use the time as a session to tell them how bored and depressed you are (don’t let them do that to you either).  Rather, make a commitment to talk about what you have learned, what you will do differently and all for which you are grateful! (This will be the most important part!) Determine to be uplifting.
10. Have a healthy social distancing luncheon with another family: One of my clients detailed how she and her family had their neighbors over and served a buffet style luncheon on pretty but disposable plates and utensils. Their tables and chairs were 6 feet apart and they actually had fun conversing during their creative time of hospitality. Make sure to have your trash and recycling bins near so everyone can discard his or her own paper products.
11. Find an exercise or dance video and complete specific online exercises and routines: There are exercises for toning your belly, building your endurance or becoming more fit.  I found a good here –  https://youtu.be/flyptPqQFG8 Right now, there are online tennis instruction videos galore so I imagine there are other sports going online as well. Pickle ball, anyone? 
12. Take some time to meditate on the plight of those who are in 3^rd world countries whose everyday experience is worse than the covid-19 pandemic.
13. Finish one of the several books you started but never finished.
14. Do something uncomfortable. We know we grow when we do something that is uncomfortable or outside of our comfort zone. I’m reading a new book on emotional resiliency and I love how the author tells the reader to be prepared to be a little frustrated and uncomfortable…but be rest-assured, the results will be worth it.
15. Diffuse essential oils into your home environment that energize your senses! I really like a blend called Zest. Read about it at www.hopewelloils.com

Now make your own list of 15 things to do to beat boredom and stress-eating. Share this with your friends, family and colleagues. I want to hear from you.  Send me some of your ideas by using the comments section at www.thinkvitality.com -This blog will be read by many of my clients and their social network so you will help a  lot of people. Let your positive attitude and creativity be contagious!

 Think Vitality, Everyone!!!