musings, life lessons & poetry from Theresa Jarosz Alberti

Tag: Corona virus

What I Want to Tell You…

Hi friends, I want to talk to you today about mental health and self-care. We are going into a really stressful week right now. Coronavirus cases and deaths are climbing, and tension around this election has been building for months and months. There’s a lot to be anxious about!

Today is a good time to think about how we can get through this week in a way that lowers our stress and is kind to ourselves. I’m talking to myself here, as well as all of you. What kind of self-care can I do to help myself this week? Continue reading

My Tiniest Vacation

It’s one of those years. (Well, hopefully it’s just ONE YEAR with no repeats, ever.) The options for vacation are pretty limited, so I decided on a day trip, since the car we’re leasing gets turned in soon and we have a lot of unused miles on it. I decided to go to Mankato, Minnesota, a 90-minute drive south, and asked my daughter Gennie to come along. I was so happy she said yes. The corona virus and quarantining has changed the kinds of interactions I have with people, and I relished a whole day to spend with her, all the talking and laughing and sharing we would do. 

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Baking the Best, Easiest Bread, Round 2

This post first appeared in December 2018, to share my enthusiasm for the easy “Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes” method of baking bread that yields such excellent and reliable crusty loaves. Since so many folks have taken to baking these days in our current stay-at-home COVID-19-avoiding world, I’ve decided to repost it today. 

If you don’t have one of their cookbooks, you can try out their basic Master recipe on their website (click here), using just flour, water, kosher salt and yeast.  Their website has a lot of info and many fun recipes, and the authors even respond to questions. Of course, the books are excellent resources with more in-depth instructions. I hope you’ll check any of this out, and let me know if you try baking Artisan Bread in  5 Minutes.

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Self-Compassion in the Time of Corona

Yesterday was not a great day.

I had hopes about things I wanted to do, to focus on. With this Global Pandemic and #StayAtHome, it seems like I have this endless blank-canvas of a day to do things, to be productive, to march forward on my goals. Sometimes I have a little luck with this, but often I’ve been finding myself getting lost in eddies of anxiety and distractions, and the day is suddenly gone. Yesterday, I listened to the news too much, which only ups my stress. Or I abruptly interrupted whatever I was trying to do by scrolling on social media— looking for… Something. I read more upsetting articles on Twitter. I watched Instagram stories flutter by in the stream. I didn’t exercise or write or make art, some of the things on my list, things that usually make me feel better.

How about you? Does any of this sound familiar? Continue reading

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