 Hello there my beautiful urnette friends welcome back to my channel. Thank you for joining me here today. I am back I am feeling like a human being again many of you know that I've been very ill for a number of days now and Great news. I'm feeling better. I'm sitting up I took a shower this morning which everyone around me by everyone I mean my dogs my cats my rats and my husband really appreciate and I wanted to thank you guys for your well wishes And I'm really glad to be back. I got up this morning and like I said, I'm feeling better I'm more with it and as I went to go take a shower. I Found myself really hit by the weight of everything that's happening I've kind of been a cocoon of sickness of just trying to take care of myself and get better and breathe and Now that I'm coming out of that seeing everything that's happening really feeling the heaviness of it the fear of it the anxiety And seeing how it's affecting everyone had a really hard moment And I was reminded of something that I experienced years ago while going through a local disaster I have never gone through something on a worldwide Global scale like we have all like we're all experiencing right now But I have lost my house in a local disaster which turned our lives upside down Which was a lot of chaos and turmoil and honestly feels very similar in a number of ways to what everyone is going through right now I don't know about you, but I've personally found that identifying things is really good for my mental health if I can understand where an emotion is coming from or what I'm really feeling or Stop minimizing, you know emotions because I'm actually understanding them That's been very helpful to me. And so I wanted to share with you tidbit from my past that may or may not help you process through some of what we are all experiencing right now as We dive into this topic if you want to give this video a thumbs up for the YouTube algorithm That would be fantastic, but no pressure you do you I've talked about this a little bit on this channel before and I will link a Video up above where I kind of go into the whole story of it But as I said, I lost my home in a fire and I wasn't just my home. It was lost It was hundreds of others black forest, Colorado Which is very close to where I currently live the house that I grew up in was there was hit by a horrible wildfire that raged for many many days took two lives took hundreds of homes and Turned my life upside down in the blink of an eye it was a very bizarre thing to go through because Suddenly everything was chaos and it was a lot to try to process through in the moment And it took me months to realize what the most difficult thing that I was experiencing was Because there was one thing that people would say over and over to me. It's just stuff Well, thank God it's just stuff, you know, you didn't lose family members or anything like that and for the record I will be eternally grateful for that, but when people said it was you know, it's just stuff I'm like cat is you're right. It is just stuff. So why do I feel like I'm falling apart? Why do I feel like I can't breathe? Why do I feel like everything is upside down and chaos and I can't deal with any More change and all of us were in a very rough mental place I realized after a bit of thinking that One of the biggest losses in all of that was routine We talk about routines and like building good routines and building healthy habits and and things like that in a pretty offhand way But they are very important to keep your sanity as a human being I don't think any of us realize how many routines we have and when all of that is turned upside down Against your will when you're not you know deciding to to do something crazy Spontaneous for a day, you know to break your routine just to change it up when suddenly everything is turned upside down And you cannot go back to any of your routines. It's really destabilizing it feels unsafe It feels like there isn't a place to rest to breathe to like catch yourself There were countless little things that I thought of that were never a thought before like being able to get up in The morning and use the coffee machine that I always used versus trying to learn a new one or Being in hotel rooms or friends houses until we got a permanent place to stay as our house was being repelled It wasn't just stuff that was lost It was memories and a way of life But it was routine and habit that was ripped away from all of us and it made my mental health Compromise to say the least one thing changes in your life. Okay. It's a little uncomfortable You get used to it a couple things change, you know, that's that's challenging But you adjust and you figure it out But when everything that you generally rely on when the majority of things that you usually do when most people who you usually see When none of that is really an option anymore or all of it's modified all of it's a little bit different That stress can really add up that stress can mount without you even realizing it it took me weeks to recognize that I was exhausted and Could not find a place to just relax because there wasn't an area of my life that was exactly the same that it was before So I think about this in the context of what is happening globally right now, right? Different countries different states have different orders different levels of Quarantine or shelter-in-place or lockdown where I personally am we have a shelter-in-place order Meaning that you are staying home unless you like need to see a doctor or you're getting groceries once a week And that's it a lot of people are talking about the boredom of all of this which is legit I totally understand that because it's hard to fight boredom when you can't go out and do things like you normally would but I Think one of the biggest causes of stress at least for me personally is that upset of all routine All habit when it's all different when it's all just a little bit stranger or you can't do things the same way Or you can't do things at all it starts to add up human beings are creatures of habit And routine I think you know this if you've ever tried to change a single habit or single routine You immediately feel the stress of that the difficulty of that I remember a couple years ago Brian and I decided to stay off of all social media for a week after Christmas And I thought whatever no big deal. That's simple. That's easy social media isn't that big of a deal I'm not even really on it that much and I tried to not be on it at all And I realized all of the times that I was checking it all of the times that I didn't go to the bathroom Have my phone or I'd wake up in the morning be eating my oatmeal and be checking things and trying to replace that with something else What's stressful as small of an example as that is I felt the pain of it in my life by just trying to change one habit And right now we have so many habits that are thrown out of whack Even the simplest things like getting up and going to work is not an option for a lot of people That can be really stressful on top of everything else that we're going through on top of the the fear and the uncertainty of All of this on top of trying to deal with isolation and not seeing people as much Additional to all of that many of our routines are upset. They're upside down They're not possible or they're slightly different and that adds stress like I said at the beginning of this video Sometimes it's helpful for me just to recognize Where things are coming from inside of me and when I went through that fire When I was able to recognize that one of the things that was really painful to me was a lack of routine Was that all being ripped away? I was able to start finding ways to replace that finding ways to build it back up This is one reason why I talk a lot in videos about focusing on the things that we can control as simple of a concept as that is When my life has been turned upside down for any variety of reasons really focusing on Some kind of small habit some kind of small routine something that I can do that I can control has been a life-saving for me because otherwise it feels like everything is Spinning in madness around me and I can't deal So if this resonates with you if you are also feeling the pain from a loss of habit a loss of routine I'm right there with you. I get it. It's uncomfortable. It's hard And it's a lot to deal with especially with everything else going on though putting new habits and new routines in place takes time And can be uncomfortable. It's something that I would highly recommend you try if you think it could be helpful to you I know it's really helpful to me and when I am able to notice. Oh, I am missing routines I am missing the things that make me feel safe and normal and stable in my life Then I'm able to start rebuilding those I talk about this a lot when I'm talking about mental health But I also think it's important to recognize things to grieve them to some extent not that you know grieve It sounds like a bit of a heavy word for habits and routines But acknowledging the loss of normal things can be really helpful in being able to move through it and move forward and Figure out what life is gonna look like now and deal with this discomfort. It is a bizarre time I don't know what to do about it There's nothing much that I can do about it aside from follow guidelines and check on the people who are close to me and Try to establish new routines and try to do things that are normal to help myself and help those around me But it's weird and it's uncomfortable and I don't think any of us know the right way to go through this We're just trying the best that we can so I hope that you're hanging in there I hope that you're doing okay I hope that you're able to reach out when you need help and That you're finding people to talk to in the midst of all of this isolation and difficulty and that you're able to find Things that are not boring because man watching TV shows can get pretty old pretty quickly if it's the only thing You're doing I know from personal experience I hope that you're able to attend to your mental and physical health whatever that means for you in the midst of everything That is occurring currently. Thank you for listening guys I am also looking for video topic ideas currently as I am as I continue to feel better Hoping to put out a lot of perhaps light fun happy content I think we all need things to distract us right now And if there is anything that I can talk about or do inside that you would like to hear about or see Let me know down below. I would love to consider it Thanks for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today You could be anywhere in the world doing anything and you chose to spend it with me And that means a lot to me and thank you so much to all my patrons over on patreon for continuing to support me Especially at this time in our world. Thank you. I love you guys I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video