First aid in times of Corona
Are you finding it difficult to make it through these strange times? We all face challenges, but there are also plenty of opportunities. This is a short ‘newsflash’ with inspiration, humor and examples of some unconventional ideas
Food adventures
Are you fed up of not being able to eat out? Quarantine is the opportunity to cook healthy and tasty food and try new recipes. If not everything you need is available; improvise! I love the Supercook.com app. You can enter the ingredients you have in your cupboard and the app tells you exactly what you can make with it, and even gives you the recipes!
My favorite snack recipe is healthy ‘guilt free’ chocolate, made in less than a minute. Basic ingredients are coconut oil and (raw) cocoa powder (in equal amounts). You stir them together with a little sugar, honey, agave syrup or other sweetener. I add a pinch of sea salt and chili flakes to give it a bit of a ‘bite’. You could also add cinnamon, cardamom, lemon zest and/or nuts. Be creative and try it out with your favorite ingredients. You can store this chocolate in the fridge to give you a boost when you need it.
I am also experimenting with making (coconut) yogurt. I have always wanted to try it, but I was never in one place long enough to actually do it. It’s very simple: pour some milk or coconut milk into a clean glass jar and add a scoop of (coconut) yogurt with live bacteria (check the ingredients list on the package). Leave the jar for 24-48h and then store in the refrigerator. A scoop of this yogurt can reactivate your next jar of (coconut) milk. Convenient, cheap, fun and delicious!
Watch
This may be a bit strange, but I find it interesting to watch movies and series that deal with this kind of situation, to understand what can happen and how people react. I recommend: the film Contagion which is a very similar situation to the one that we are in now with Coronavirus. Containment is a series on Netflix in which part of the city is hermetically sealed when a virus breaks out. Pandemic is a documentary series about the search for a universal influenza vaccine on Netflix. In the series ‘Explained’, Netflix has a brilliant 20 min documentary ‘The next pandemic‘. Enjoy!
Listen
Need inspiration while cleaning, walking or doing other things, or need to give your eyes a rest after too much screen time or Netflix? I like to listen to podcasts. There are so many to choose from:
TMBA and Tim Ferris are great for people interested in entrepreneurship and location independent living. TMBA also made a podcast of my story ‘resident of where?’.
I also recommend the Wellpreneur podcast from my friend Amanda Cook. It is for wellness entrepreneurs, about ‘being well and doing well’. I like the ‘Slow Growth & Life Seasons‘ episode. Life & business happens in seasons. Instead of pushing & hustling, what if we stepped into the flow?
For Dutchies: I recorded my first Dutch book ‘Wat is jouw excuus?‘ as an audiobook. I offer this inspiration for free to help you get through these times. If you prefer the English book in the written format you can get it here.
Exercise
It is always important to keep moving. If possible, go for a walk, jog or fresh air. If you can’t get out, you can do the ‘7 min workout’ at home. For motivation, you could do with others via a video call; I do it with my 10-year-old niece who lives a little further away! On YouTube you will find two super workouts: TenX abs for beginners, you can do anywhere to get a beautiful six-pack. (The instructor is also quite fun to watch, haha!) And TenX’s ‘bikini workout‘, which is really tough, but delicious!
Humor
Great to see how the humor emerges in these times. There are so many funny pictures and videos circulating. These two are my favorite.
Opportunities
How are you using your time?
- I’m trying to learn something new (Italian via DuoLingo, a few minutes a day; I’ve been on it for 25 days straight now!).
- I make video calls through Zoom with interesting people.
- Wish you knew the BEST next steps to grow your business? Take my friend Willo Sana’s LightMap Quiz to discover what stage you’re in… and get the exact steps you need to take right now to grow!
- And from now on I have decided to give at least one online workshop every week with themes that can be useful today. ‘How to turn anything into a business‘, ‘Digital Nomad Workshop‘, ‘Visibility, personal branding and social media‘, ‘Using freelancers for design and outsourcing’ and weekly ‘from idea to book‘ workshops. Check out the workshops: which one can inspire or help you forward?
Creative solutions
The biggest bottleneck in this crisis appears to be respiratory equipment. Various creative solutions have been devised.
For example, Decathlon supplied snorkel equipment, which has been converted into breathing equipment, with 3D printed parts. In America, ventilators have been shipped from veterinarians and zoos to use in hospitals.
Dyson, the well-known vacuum cleaner manufacturer, developed a medical ventilator in just 10 days.
Did you know...?
… that I had to cancel my writing week in Mallorca in May? The next one is (hopefully) the one in Thailand in October.
Here is a video of the last writing week in Curaçao with beautiful images from the salt pans. Enjoy these views of the outdoors, even if you have to stay indoors.
By the way: I’m organizing several online workshops about writing your book in the coming weeks.
Where is Esther?
I am with my father in Miami! I managed to enter the USA on the last plane from Curaçao to replace the caretaker who had to return to the Netherlands. I wrote a blog about this surreal journey: ‘travel in times of corona‘. I am happy to be with my father, but I hope that a caretaker can fly in again soon, because Miami is not my favorite place on earth …
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