Category: #kindnessmatters

Life in a Pandemic: Anxious Times

3/26/2020

This is a time for hearts,
for big hearts, growing hearts,
open hearts.

Hearts too big to fit into this picture.

Let’s take good care of everyone,
including ourselves.

Life during a pandemic, even in countries like Canada which is still in the early stages, is full of anxiety. We're thrown off balance so we have trouble finding our footing. It's like the ground keeps moving.

It's not just that we are having to learn new practices to stay healthy, it's also the fact that the situation is constantly changing, close at hand, and around the world.

Some people have reached out to me, each experiencing some degree of distress. Some are experiencing a lot of fear – of the virus, for the future – and the 24/7 news cycle has become a vortex that infects us with fear.

There are others for whom the loss of normalcy, the rhythms and routines of their ordinary life, is the biggest issue. Losing so much so suddenly, they find themselves wading through grief for their life pre-pandemic. The suddenness can hit us hard.

I have been fortunate in finding meaning and purpose in the new things I have taken on, directly in response to the crisis, to help people get through the isolation and disquiet, and doing that has given me a little comfort.

Before I tell you about that though, I want to share with you some thoughts I wrote to someone who needed help and emotional support through her distress at feeling unable to focus, unable to work, unable to settle. I feel it too. So many of us do, even if not all the time. So here is what I would like to say to you:

Nothing is normal right now. Nothing. So be gentle on yourself for not being able to work, and for feeling scattered. That is a natural response to feeling the anxiety of our crisis situation and even trauma and grief at the loss of normality.

We humans adapt to amazing things but to stay healthy in the full sense it is important to do gentle things that nourish, calm and ground you. That will ease the transition to the new normal, and you will feel better for it.

Activities that get you focused on your body are especially beneficial: movement of any kind and focusing on your senses instead of your thoughts whenever you can, or for part of each day.

Do something with your hands, go outside for a walk if you are healthy (and keep your distance from others). Above all, have patience with yourself and those around you... even for the times that you – or they – lose patience :-)

. . . . .

On March 20, I started holding Virtual Studio Parties online, via YouTube livestream so that anyone with high-speed internet, no matter how unconfident with their computer, could take part.

It’s a no-cost creative gathering for anyone who’s missing the experience of community, is feeling isolated or anxious, or wants to have some gentle fun in the real-time, virtual, company of others.

People have said it's really helped them and it's something they look forward to now.

If this sounds like it might help you, or just be fun, visit my Virtual Studio Parties page.

Do you have a suggestion for self-care during stressful times? Please share in the comments.

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Happy New Year 2017!

1/4/2017

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May we all shine our light a little brighter and spread a little more love this year.
Thanks so much for your interest, enthusiasm and support, it means a lot.
Wishing you (and your family) all the best in 2017.

Happy New Year 2017! Photos: above, © Kal Honey 2016 www.kalhoney.ca; below, Kim Lee Kho 2016.

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A Big, Big Heart

10/13/2015

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Here I am with my pride and joy, a great big model of an anatomical heart (it even opens up so you can look at the chambers and valves).

This week in the creative writing class I am taking, I am one of the people assigned to bring "show & tell", usually in the form of one or more objects and a piece of writing. I have been working hard at pulling together the words and pictures that will accompany this object for my presentation.

Personally, the heart is a potent basis for poetic and symbolic thinking whether in art or writing.

Looking around at everything going on in the world today, I find myself wondering how different the world would be if all of us approached our fellow humans (and other life forms) with open hearts, not hardened ones.

What am I doing with this jumbo anatomical heart?

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Camping, a Broken Ankle & Spreading the Word that #KindnessMatters

9/10/2015

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My husband Kal used some charcoal created by the previous night's fire to embellish the firebowl.

Reading or watching the news can be a depressing business, which is why some smart people I know take breaks from it, as well as breaks from being online, breaks from having their phone on beeping at them all the time, and breaks from social media.

My recent break from all of that was during a recent camping trip. Wonderful! Great weather, lots of wild turkeys (and their babies) around, lots of reading and campfires, and characteristic of the Canadian shield: rock, water and white pines.

A panorama of our third campsite, the one where I broke my ankle.

Driving to the hospital – not quite what we'd planned to do on our vacation!

Scientists have observed that acts of kindness have a positive effect on not just the recipient, nor just the donor but also anyone who observes the act of kindness!

#KindnessMatters

There is also science that shows we are connected to our extended social networks (i.e. including people we don't actually know) in ways that would have been considered either impossible or magic before. Here is a TEDTalk on that topic by one of the scientists who studied our surprising connectedness:

It was all pretty idyllic until I broke my ankle. A couple of gorgeous afternoons were spent at the hospital while I got x-rayed, examined and eventually fitted with an air-cast – yay! At least it's not a plaster one!

While trying to avoid putting weight on my leg I read and saw too much news including the little drowned Syrian refugee Alan, and the sharply contrasting responses to the refugee crisis by various governments.

It occurred to me (not for the first time) that we have really lost our way, because "out there" in the world everything and everyone gets treated like a commodity, having no inherent value, valued only if they can be monetized and exploited. That the kindness held up as a primary value by most sages and religious beliefs was getting trampled in the rush for money at all costs.

Knowing I couldn't be the only one getting dragged down by the depressing lack of kindness in the world, I decided to devote some of my social media time to spreading messages of kindness using the hashtag #KindnessMatters.

Sometimes I link to videos or other people's stories, sometimes I make my own meme with a quote, like the one above, but everyday I want to put something "out there" that focuses on kindness.

If you find yourself feeling similarly to me, I hope you'll add your voice in spreading #KindnessMatters, whether it's once or once in a while or once a day. We all need reminders of what matters cutting through the noise of all that other stuff "out there".

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Life in a Pandemic: Anxious Times

Happy New Year 2017!

A Big, Big Heart

Camping, a Broken Ankle & Spreading the Word that #KindnessMatters

Kim-Lee Kho

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Life in a Pandemic: Anxious Times

Happy New Year 2017!

A Big, Big Heart

Camping, a Broken Ankle & Spreading the Word that #KindnessMatters

Kim-Lee Kho

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