Family Joy: Connect and Use Downtime Effectively

Enjoy empowering yourself and be sure to share. We believe in co-inspiring and co-empowering each other. Below you will learn how to make your and your family life happier and more organized, as well as well as how to support your community during these challenging times.

Ten Tips How to Generate Family Joy in the Time of Crisis

Table of Contents:

• A Crippled Woman Who Saved Her Joy
• 1. Make a Healthy Cake with Your Kid or Grandchild
• 2. Do Some De-Brooming
• 3. Do Small Acts of Kindness
• 4. Read Business News on How China and South Korea are Recovering
• 5. Increase Your Peace of Mind by Ensuring Regular Preventative Routine
• 6. Stay on Top of the Informational Hygiene
• 7. Do Not Buy into Conspiracies or New World Order Agendas
• 8. Transitional Enjoyable Routine for, Kids, Elderly Parents and Yourself
• 9. Bring Joy to Those Who are Quarantined
• 10. Laugh, Laugh, and Laugh Even Harder

A Crippled Woman Who Saved Her Joy

“Before we all die of corona virus does anyone have a crush on me?”

My husband Vasili recently came back from a 2-week get-well trip in Belarus, the country, where both of us grew up. Of all the therapies, he was intuitively drawn to the therapy using the contrast of hot and cold water. It consisted of alternating immersion of the entire body – up to the neck for 5 minutes in an ice cold pool, – followed by 5 minutes submerged in a hot pool. The treatment was 45 minutes long.

Vasili was drawn to this because he could not recover on his own from an extreme burnout of leading the Fresh Start through the largest transition ever. Consequently, he had extremely low energy, no appetite; an inability to focus on a mental task for more than 1-2 hours a day; and a host of other debilitating symptoms too long to mention here. Looking at him, I was afraid that he could die at any time. Yet, this whole time you’d never guess that’s how horrible Vasili felt on the inside. He’d share with me the last drop of joy and energy to cheer me up, while I was in so much better shape.

While attending the hot-cold baths, my husband met a handicapped lady in her early 60’s who chose to work on improving her health using this therapy also. Her left leg was severely deformed. When the lady and other participants found out that Vasili was from Canada, they had a lot of questions for him. He answered many of those, and then asked the lady: “What happened to your leg?”

“I was 7 years old” she said. ”We were playing in the field, and I stepped on a post-war land mine. I’ve had many surgeries after that… Anyhow, why don’t you come for a dance with us? I’ve been with a guy for 15 years, but let him go because he became boring, and I like when a man makes me happy…!”

Vasili politely replied to her: “I am working remotely with a team. While it is evening here, it is morning there. I have a responsibility.”

The lady was going with others from bath to bath. Although it would take her a minute to go up the stairs, and another minute to go down, she never complained about any discomfort or challenge (yet everyone else did!). Vasili was amused at how she playfully looked at the men around her in the pools, including him.

You need to know that from the knee down there was just a bone and skin. Yet this lady was not ashamed of it, she overcame it long time ago. Vasili laughed at how she was looking for creative ways to get him to the dance and had to find ways to politely excuse himself… I really enjoyed calls with him in the evening.

Summary: Joy is a choice and feeling miserable is also. We can have all the opportunities in the world and still be unhappy, or like this lady, dance through life on one leg. But most of us are somewhere in-between. Our life is not perfect, but we have plenty to worry about. If we wait until we run out of problems, in order to experience happiness, we will wait for an eternity.

Ten Tips on How to Generate Family Joy in Times of Crisis

The energy opposite to fear is joy. Joy is happiness in motion. When you feel joyful, you want to dance, you feel light, you get creative.

How do you bring joy back to yourself and your family when, whether you are working or not, it is no longer a safe world that we live in? How to avoid being engulfed by fear, anger and regrets?

Present reality: your computer, phone, TV, radio, tablet or local newspaper – subject to where you go and what you listen to – can turn into a snake venom feeder or something that will nourish the entire family. It is your choice what you decide to focus on. You can always find something to laugh at. Whether it is watching a family movie with good old values or a funny cartoon, there is always something in life around you that can uplift your spirits. BUT it can happen only if you pre-plan your sensible exposure to media, your family movie time, family game time, family dinner preparation time and various family projects.

In the light of the current events, here are 10 ideas you can bring into your family life to enliven your family spirit and bring more joy:

1. Make a Healthy Cake with Your Kid or Grandchild

“Even in a disaster the vegan food shelf is still fully stocked”.

Get a quality gluten-free mix, like Cloud-9 Chocolate Cake or Namaste Carrot Cake  and bake a cake at home. Idea for a healthy filling: use cashew nuts liquefied in a blender. For the filling in this cake we used 3 cups of cashews soaked overnight, juice of 2 lemons, 4 Tbs. honey and enough water to make a medium thickness paste. Ensure that you add enough liquid, so your cake has enough filling (otherwise it’ll be too dry).

Healthy Desserts are critical to keep your immune system stable (and kids happy!).

2. Do Some De-Brooming

“Just wait until the Jehovah’s Witnesses figure out that everyone is at home.”

De-brooming is the best lymph circulation enhancer! Being outside is great for kids, but when they get older, they get bored there when do not have anything to do. If you have a backyard or acreage, get them involved in lawn moving, spring cleaning, garage decluttering or helping you to fix a fence. They not only will learn a ton, and you’ll bond with them, but the fresh air will oxygenate their blood and through this will boost their immune system. It would be great if kids could spend 1-2 hours outside every day, depending on your climate.

Tip: Look for indoor activities ideas past movies and computer games. Also search online teacher/tutor/course for you or your kid to learn something new. Be creative with down time.

3. Do Small Acts of Kindness

“They said that you need to wear gloves and a face mask at the local supermarket. They lied… everyone else was wearing clothes”

My husband and I witnessed how a clerk in the store was shaking checking out a customer. Another clerk next to her was a jokester, full of life and joy. The store owner came to the till to address a couple of things. A customer, a tall elderly gentleman, dressed in a cowboy hat and a dirty yellow jacket, noticed the distress. In a loud authoritative voice he expressed his gratitude towards the scared clerk who served him and to the store owner. It was a moment to remember. He said: “Thank you so much for serving us at the time like this.”

Say thank you to people who serve you, every day risking their life, so that us and our families would have food on the table and support our other basic necessities. Image what a crisis it would be without them!

By making another person feel great, you’ll make yourself feel great, too.  Here a few ways how you can do it:

• Email your local vendors or the local service providers.
• Send a thank you letter to a restaurant or coffee shop and say how much you’ve appreciated years of business and that you are looking forward to doing business with them, when the storm is over.

Note: Many of those people feel afraid, are struggling, and hearing a word of support may mean a lot to them.

• If you are a grocery store manager, place a basket for thank you cards for your employees (if needed, have one employee read them in gloves, take pictures and pass to the team).
• Do not wait for someone to make you happy. Pick-up the phone and make the one on the other side laugh or at least smile.

4. Read Business News on How China and South Korea are Recovering

“First time in history that we can save the world by laying in front of a TV and doing nothing. Let’s not screw it up!”

Learn what China and South Korea are doing after recovery. The majority of goods in our stores come from China. While both countries have military regime which allowed them to use to their advantage in the time of pandemics, it took them a month and a half to contain the virus, and 7-12 months to gradually reboot the country. They are not 100% back on track, yet. But they are closer than us.

At the time of writing this article, here are the two most recent updates:

1. China News: https://globalnews.ca/news/6749502/coronavirus-wuhan-reopens/

Curve graph China: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/china/

2. South Korea-what they did to turn the curve: https://www.heritage.org/asia/commentary/south-korea-provides-lessons-good-and-bad-coronavirus-response

Curve graph Korea: https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/south-korea/

Currently, the number of cases with COVD-19 diagnosed in China, from hundreds a day dropped down to less than 50 per day. And while I am not predicting how soon it is going us to take to get there, I just want to say:

“And this bug shall pass also”. We have food, water and shelter, major communication systems are functioning, and even government provides us support. We are in much better conditions than post-war countries.

5. Increase Your Peace of Mind by Ensuring Regular Preventative Routine

“Anyone have a recipe to make toilet paper from a cauliflower as it is really easy to buy??”

Read the How-to-Lists in our Prevention section, especially one on Sanitization Routine.

6. Stay on Top of the Informational Hygiene

“Day 2 without sports on TV. Found a lady sitting on my couch. Apparently she is my wife. She seems nice.”

Be careful with news. Minimize your kids’ exposure to it. It may create a trauma for them that you’ll need to handle later, and the trauma can get deeper and be harder to work with than in the case of an adult. Some people, particularly elderly, may be more prone to sickness. The fear may increase their risk of getting sick and to aggravate the disease outcome. Minimize the impact of informational damage on them.

Tip: You may choose one family member to be responsible for getting regularly informed and will pass the most relevant information to the rest of the family. Whatever you choose to do, bring to a minimum exposure to negativity for your family, especially for your vulnerable and emotionally sensitive members.

7. Do Not Buy into Conspiracies or New World Order Agendas

“Technically showing up at the bank in a mask and gloves is OK.”

I keep getting lots of YouTube videos from friends and family members on conspiracies, New World Order, and the like. The order is needed, especially at the times of panic, when we act like animals and run to the store to buy out all the toilet paper. When we are sick and in fear, we don’t think using our rational mind, we don’t take care of ourselves, and let fear run the show.

You just cannot give us 100% self-direction at times like these. We would not need our government to regulate us and create all these protective measures if we were looking after our health in advance, if we had strong immunity, and if we were self-sufficient and debt-free.

Yes, we can all see what things were blown out of proportion, what omissions were made, and what wasn’t done or was overdone. But they did the best they could in an emergency situation. If they did not, the impact of the pandemics would be unpredictable both health wise and economically. We should not be angry at those, who had the difficult task of keeping the nations alive and as safe as possible. Imagine how tough it was for those who were making those decisions. I really hope that we all can grow our spirit of appreciation. And instead of the new world order, we will have a new co-respect, co-empowering, new wisdom and new discernment.

8. Transitional Enjoyable Routine for, Kids, Elderly Parents and Yourself

“Three hours into home schooling and one is suspended for skipping lessons and the other has already been expelled.”

If you fail to plan, you plan to fail. What is already in crisis, will become even a bigger crisis. Act your way out of fear. Out of crisis. Out of the distress. And do not be surprised of the miracles unfolding on your path.

How to Create a Family Routine

1. Set consistent time when the entire family gets up and goes to bed. Choose a specific time that is not too early and not too late for you. In the morning let the kids sleep a bit longer than during the school, so that their nervous and immune systems get rejuvenated. Yet still keep an early go-to-bed routine, as it is very important for everyone’s health, particularly immunity.

2. Get creative with your home workout routine. Lymph and blood circulation are important for ensuring the immune system functions well, and exercise plays an essential part in it. Complement exercise with healthy nutrition.

3. If you have older children: teach them to enjoy contributing to the family chores, such as cleaning the house, meal preparation, organizing pantry, decluttering garage and preparing boxes to take to Value Village when the quarantine is over. Here are some ideas from our family: Chores Boards.

4. For younger children – organize time for doing crafts together, or with older children.

5. Schedule family time outdoors and indoors every week

Make work enjoyable and gradually build-up your kids’ skills and self-confidence. Confidence comes with competence! Teach them step-by-step all your how-to tricks. Though many things seem obvious to us, or we’d rather do it all by ourselves, because it is faster, unless we learn how to teach and have patience to pass our skills to our children, we will not help them prepare for real life.

Remember that children have a hard time not getting distracted during work until they are about 12 years old. Self-organizing is challenging for them until approximately the age of 16. Do not expect too much of them at once and do not get frustrated if they don’t finish everything you asked them to do. Forgive and give them a good incentive to finish. And most importantly, set reasonable expectations for the quality of the work.

9. Bring Joy to Those Who are Quarantined

“We are about 2 weeks away from discovering everybody’s true colours: nail salons closed, hair salons closed, lash salons closed…”

Remember for those who are quarantined, that they may feel outcasted and distrusted. But more than ever, they also need to know that someone cares. Stay in touch, be supportive, buy some immune boosters for them and have them delivered to their door. Sign them up for our Antiviral Defence Program .

Story of Mariana:

My husband’s cousin Mariana lives in Ukraine and works as an elementary school teacher. Recently, everyone in her family got sick with a bad flu, including an 80+ old grandma and two small grandchildren. Mariana’s husband just came from Portugal. As he started feeling unwell soon after returning, and was tested for COVD-19.It was confirmed positive. They decided to test his family, too. It turned out that they all had COVID-19 without knowing it, and the man got it from them! When they found out, the school where Mariana was working, got shut down.

When the school parents found out, they got upset and turned on Mariana: “How come you did not tell anyone and exposed our kids to danger?” The reality in Ukraine is that only in the capital city and a few other large cities people can be tested for the real coronavirus… the rest of the country is treating it as a regular flu with high fever, not knowing which one is true, which one is not. I wonder what the real numbers are in the statistics – how accurate, considering the info gap… yet all of them successfully recovered, not knowing the name of the bug.

The same parents who got upset with Mariana, when the quarantine is over, will be back with their kids at school. However, they have since blocked the channel of love, care, attention that the teacher was pouring unto their children. Many people don’t forget, after they feel they have been shunned, disrespected, or distrusted. So the potential outcome: this teacher most likely will leave the school, even though she’s one of the best teachers in the town and has been there for many years. It will be hard for her to forget those bitter words from the parents, who possibly, themselves infected the very teacher and her kids in the first place.

Recently I’ve received a text message saying: “I am so frustrated with the fact that so many people are not self-isolating!” Even though I totally get the point, we also need to remember to remain humans and be respectful to people around us, especially if they got sick. Don’t burn the bridges of relationship because of fear. Be courteous, respectful and thoughtful.

We want to say to those people who went through this or whose family members have been affected:

Look towards the families with young babies and elderly parents. How have they managed and successfully recovered? There are thousands of success stories. Do not let the fear affect you.

To reclaim joy, you need to practice discernment and plan your life forward. You must respect your country’s pandemics laws designed to lessen the impact and stop the spread of this pest that has halted life across the globe.

10. Laugh, Laugh, and Laugh Even Harder

“Anyone who is single be careful who you take home this weekend. You may be stuck with them for at least two weeks!”

How to Heal Yourself Using Your Facial Muscles?

What if you really can’t “find anything funny?” Believe it or not, it’s possible to laugh without experiencing a funny event—and simulated laughter can be just as beneficial as the real thing. It can even make exercise more fun and productive.

Laughter Therapy (Simulated Laughter) Have you ever experienced laughter yoga? If you did not, you just have to learn about it more:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGNOF8DVIPQ

Here is an awesome resource on Benefits of Laughter and How to Bring More Laughter: https://www.helpguide.org/articles/mental-health/laughter-is-the-best-medicine.htm

You can get a lot of ideas from there (with some additions):

• Watch a good old comedy, TV show, or a funny You-Tube Video
• Listen to a comedian
• Share a joke or a funny story
• Read a jokes’ book or jokes online
• Organize a game night with your family
• Play with your pet
• Sing karaoke

How to Bring Joy into Daily Life:

• Laugh at yourself
• Laugh at situations
• Post funny posters and sticky notes around
• Pick a funny computer screensaver
• Frame pics of your family or you having fun
• Recall an amusing story of your life
• Collect, write down and use jokes you hear from others
• Don’t go a day without laughing

Credit: The Jokes from this article were provided by Laura Babnik (authors unknown). The last quote below is shared by Nicole Berns.

Disclaimer: If nothing you’ve read made you smile so far and you still are in the state of a deep depression, please ensure you get to the hospital immediately to be tested for a lack of sense of humour. There is nothing else we can do for you holistically. It is incurable and is considered a medical emergency:

A SAD SOUL CAN KILL YOU QUICKER THAN A GERM 
– JOHN STEINBECK

Bonus! For those who did not get infected by the virus described in the Disclaimer:

Enjoy Joy Boosters freshly prepared for you by the Fresh Start Team.

Ania Kastashchuk is the Program Manager, Senior Program Director and Co-Founder of Fresh Start Health Retreat, specializing in health restoration using natural health methods. Fresh Start is located on Vancouver Island, BC, Canada. The retreat focuses on 4 areas: Detox & Recharge, Physical Health, Emotional Wellness and Habits Re-patterning (quit smoking, mild social drinking, emotional eating). Over the last 15 years Ania with her husband Vasili and team of professionals have been assisting those who are ready for a change to transform their health and lifestyle naturally.

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