A Superhero For Your Future Self

The following is a reflection on our current state of affairs, world, and life goals.  It might offer insight into my personal pursuits, reminders in this strange time, and advice from my own paradigm.

I exist currently in the between-times.  A limbo of sorts; preparing more distance learning materials for my students while maintaining an online presence, but attempting to use my time wisely so as not to stagnate in my skills, goals, and creative pursuits.
  Normally this would mean more writing, composing, and painting, and maybe some extra time to work out and maybe meditate.  Good things, right?  And yet, I am sometimes hollow.  
The lack of connection, despite video chats.  Lack of traditional business, even with the digital tools at our fingertips.  It's only Day 4, and I'm losing my temper with people over little things.  Something snapped.

I threw my mouse across the room.  

It's wireless, and I've replaced the batteries several times to no difference in quality.  It jumps and jitters around, unable suddenly to do its job.  So.  I threw it out the office door and watched it bounce on the tile in our living room, the cover dislodging at the first impact, a battery singing into the air to ricochet off the ceiling, and the body skittering to a stop by our back door.
  I don't break things usually.  All things considered, I'm a pretty chill dude.  However, as I believe with most "chill" people, we all have our things.  The little pieces of our world that just bother us; we might be aware of them, we might be working on them (as I do), but they're still there.  We cannot deny their existence nor their weight upon us, and though we may be better equipped to handle them at times than others, they are ever-present and looming.
For me, it is a perceived lack of production.

If I am not producing a blog, a podcast, a paint job, a song...  I feel like garbage.  And with our current climate, I am blessed with sudden and isolated time.  And yet, I felt trapped, unfocused, and frustrated, despite my long list of tasks I could complete.  So I broke something.  Interrupted the thought cycle and released some energy.  Then marched my stupid face down to the basement and did a workout.

Ninety minutes later, soaked in sweat and tears, I was a new man.  
Motivated, sore as hell, and ready to go.  Like I'd been asleep to the world until this moment.  And, you know, that's completely fair.  Quite a bit changes each day lately, and A LOT of people's lives have been upended by our current events; there are numerous questions in the air, ever-evolving information, and a need to take things one day at a time.  My wife told me that I had been in a state of "mourning."  Mourning the past paradigm, mourning the current state of our lives, and quite literally moving through those stages of grief.  
​  We've come now, ladies and gentlemen, to Acceptance.  Now we can move forward.
Here are some things to remember, from my own perspectives, as we wade through this strange time.

Take A Breath

Practice: Patience and Perseverance
This is not permanent.  It sucks, in plentiful ways.  Many are still working, many not, and still many more existing in the grays between - unable to reach out for basic human contact and still required to exist.  It calls into question every fiber of our humanity, and yet we must persist.  
  It is only Day 4 of this, and people are already panicking.  We have lived through worse as a human race; being a scared little welp helps no one.  Read, learn, and do what is right for the community to stay safe.  Be kind to your young ones; they're scared and those less equipped aren't helping their hope.  BE THEIR HOPE.  We're going to be okay. Take it one day at a time and practice.

Get Moving

Practice: Self Care and Fitness
Some news outlets have thrown up their hands in disgust, exclaiming "What's the big deal?  Just hunker down and watch some more TV!"
  ...That's terrible advice.  Yes, at a COMPLETE LOSS of things to do, I guess TV is a thing.  Maybe I just have "too many" hobbies, but TV is literally the last thing on my mind.  I could record a song, catch up on my Japanese, write a goddamn book, READ a book, paint a portrait, finish my IT cert, clean the basement, put together a bookshelf (done!), EXPRESS MYSELF...in millions of ways that aren't the soul-crushing deluge of Facebook posts of fear and turmoil.
And I can finally exercise on a functional schedule.  Which, for me, is 5 days a week.  I achieved that for about 2 weeks back when QWay was open and I felt like a freaking superhero.
Be a freaking superhero.  ...Because you definitely are (you just have to believe it too).

Unplug and Reconnect

Practice: Self-Talk, Focus, and Meditation
​I rebooted my daily meditation.  I had lost track of it in the madness.  I had lost track of my nerves, my energy, and my center.  My center.  I'm going to need that.
I don't need to be constantly online.  Given our quarantined state, any modicum of human connection will be essential, but not to the point of obsession.  There is a line.  And if you approach that line, put it down, take a deep breath, and do something else.  
  My favorite is grounding myself.  I lie flat on the floor and feel my whole body get heavy; reconnect to the earth beneath me.  Ground my spirit and my soul and remind me that I am okay.  I am alive.  I am powerful.  And if I feel the pull that I am powerless, I HAVE THE POWER to change that feeling within myself.  I can control myself in a space of chaos; I am the gatekeeper to my own mind.  Never a victim of my surroundings unless I choose to be.
Turn off the news and listen to music.  Turn off YouTube and read a book.  Turn off the TV and play a board game.  Just because we CAN be online all the time doesn't mean we should. 
  Take some intimate time with yourself and tend to your personal garden.  Remember, you're the one that has to live in it.  Pull up those weeds - without getting angry that they're there - add some fresh soil, water, maybe do some trimming, and perhaps you'll be inspired to change up a few things, or revisit that old tree that you used to love that lies gnarled and forgotten in the back of your grove.  That one with the swing; old scraps of parchment and paintbrushes tucked away in its roots.  Maybe that old love needs some attention too.  
...Yes this metaphor has multiple layers.  Like a parfait.

Be Kind To Future Adam

Practice: Hope and Practicality
​The future is not yet written, and we can learn from the past, even our most recent.  Plan and prepare, but do not obsess.  Be proactive, but hopeful.  Don't leave the important stuff to chance, but if that's done already, believe that this, too, will pass.  And you know your future self quite well; we know the stress of a lack of time.  Which promise do I sacrifice to maintain the current lie of my past?  And what excuses are the proper weight to this scale of forgiveness for my future self?  A justification for a lack of plan and follow-through is a weakness so many people have, and it will be a great tide to overcome in the coming weeks.
​Pursue a better tomorrow by leaving today in a better place than when you began.  Be kind to your future self by taking care of the pressing matters now, even though you're tired.  Plan accordingly so your future self can keep his word.  Portion out those cookies now so future you can enjoy them too in a few days.  And not because we're in dire straits, but because we're fighting for a better place for our future selves to live.  
  We don't know what tomorrow will bring, so give your future self a fighting chance.
Give your world a fighting chance.

I'll see you at the table, digital or otherwise.  
Be safe.  Be kind.  Don't forget to love yourself.
-Adamus