Amit Sood and His Ideas to Increase Our Resilience

 Dr. Amit Sood has some great and easy to start ideas to increase our resilience, our ability to get through trouble, loneliness and sadness. He wrote "Just as trees grow their branches toward the sun, spend more time with people who are your source of light." 

One idea of Dr. Sood's I like is "Greet at least one person each day as if you haven't seen them for a month, with enthusiasm and energy."

Here is a picture that might make you smile, it makes me smile. This is a painting of my pup, Bounce. Yes, he has a Hawaiian shirt like in the portrait, and he is holding a ukelele in the painting, the artist's creative idea.

 

Dr Sood also says try to notice one new thing each day. I find that takes a bit of work, it is not as easy for me as I might have thought. Another of his ideas to build resilience in us is to send a silent good wish to someone you're connecting with. He does this all day, which makes him feel uplifted. Dr, Sood is a former medical professor at Mayo Clinic and is now CEO of the Resilient Option.

Me in 1966 riding a donkey to a picnic spot on Buyuk Ada, an island near Istanbul. My Turkish friends planned the picnic which included a carriage ride and they cooked shish kebabs and other goodies outdoors. Fun. New Things. Let's Do It.

Heart ice cubes, coffee shop,Bounce,patio

 

Fun for ice tea, this is a heart ice cube tray which I like to use.

Above is me at Shrine Coffee, plenty of room for social distancing, the ocean is across the street, and the gardens are extensive. Here you see my pandemic long hair, no hair cut for over a year. After this photo was taken I did dare to go in for my first hair cut in eons.

Above is Bounce getting a sun bath on my patio, you can glimpse my 5 foot tall pink rose bush in the background, and below are petunias on the patio.

Just wanted to share a few things from my summer days. How is your summer going? I know my friends in Australia and Africa are enjoying cooler months now as the year there cools down.

Painting rocks and a frog

I've been feeling a bit blah with my routines, so chose an artistic outlet. I am painting rocks and it is so fun. I don't think about anything else when I am painting, which is a good thing.

The rocks are not completed so I will post photos when I have completed painting some. The main one you can see in this photo has a butterfly I painted on it. I am holding some Acrylic Paint pens which worked very nicely. I don't know much about paints so scouted around on blogs, etc. for info. I also ordered some matte finish acrylic paints and paint brushes; the paints are designed for outdoor projects. I used the paints on this project below. The frog welcome sign was completely faded after 20 years of being in my garden.

He used to be a bright happy green. So I painted him with my new paint set. See how he turned out below. My next step is to paint on Duraclear Gloss Varnish, which is meant for outdoor use and is soap and water cleanup. This varnish is applied by brush which probably wastes less and is kinder to our planet and the air than a spray. The paint set I bought is FolkArt Gloss Acrylic Paint Outdoor and the acrylic paint pens are Flyset Graffiti. All the paints are soap and water cleanup.

Have you taken on a new hobby? In these times of many of us staying home for long hours, a new activity is very absorbing and diverts my attention from worry to enjoyment.