Weekend Update
Happy Monday!
I hope you had a great weekend.
Our weekend was pretty low-key. There’s not much we can do nowadays. On Friday night we ordered take away and watched tv. Tj was so tired he fell asleep on the couch at 8:00 pm. Saturday we went to one of our favourite bakeries and picked up some treats. Later I went for a really long walk around the lake. The rest of the weekend was just lots of movies and naps.
I was definitely starting to go a little COVID crazy last week. It feels like the last few months have done nothing slow the pandemic here and Melbourne is even worse than where we started. I just want to travel and go to dinner and walk around without a mask haha.
Since I was a little cranky on Friday, it felt really nice to focus on things I enjoy all weekend. Hence the pastries and movies and naps.
I also had a lot of fun thinking of ways for Jacob to rearrange his room. He let Tj and I come up with some ideas for him to incorporate a bigger desk. He doesn’t care what his room looks like, but making our space more functional has made this lockdown so much better for Tj and I. And decorating is fun! So we came up with a few ideas and Tj drew up a floor plan. We will talk to Jacob today and see what he thinks! Hopefully, we can share the transformation in a future blog post, but that would mean Jacob would actually have to clean his room hahaha.
I also started a free online course this weekend. It’s something I’ve been wanting to do, and I thought now was a good time to start.
I chose ‘The Science of Wellbeing’ course offered by Yale University on Coursera.org. I heard the professor Laurie Santos speak on a podcast and I thought it was a very interesting concept. It’s the most popular course offered at Yale which they have adapted to a free online course.
In a nutshell, the course is about how the science of psychology can provide important hints about how to make wiser choices and how to live a life that’s happier and more fulfilling. The first week was an introduction to the course and concepts. I had to take a few quizzes to measure my baseline happiness and identify my personality strengths.
There was a very timely video of a live chat the professor did a few months ago about how to boost well-being during the COVID-19 pandemic. She answered questions about consuming news without increasing anxiety, staying focused and productive at work, creating positive experiences while in lockdown, and sleeping better, despite increased anxiety and stress.
The tip that stuck with me the most was not to worry about being more productive and all the things you could be getting done. Focus on the things that you enjoy and when you are happier and more relaxed you will naturally be more productive.
And that’s exactly been my experience this weekend, even before I did this coursework! I was feeling overwhelmed on Friday and I had a whole list of things I wanted to get done this weekend. But I just did whatever I wanted and didn’t worry about it, and somehow, in between my naps and movies, I had one of the most productive weekends I’ve had in a while.
I’m excited to see if I pick up any other good tidbits through this course. At the very least it will be something new to do, especially since from this Thursday masks are mandatory for anyone outside.
Have a great week!
