Laurie Johnson

7 Creative Ideas for Coronavirus Lockdown

As we find ourselves in coronavirus lockdown around the world, why not use this time to improve your life overall? One of the things I enjoy most about living in Lake Tahoe is that we have access to local and organic foods and are a community built upon wellness. We also have many wellness centers, which makes North Lake Tahoe and Truckee one of the healthiest communities in the world.

While Lake Tahoe has become inaccessible to tourist travel, I thought I would take the opportunity to share the positive vibe, which thrives in the Lake Tahoe and Truckee community. Why not take this opportunity to reboot your life? Below are 7 Creative Ways to make the most of coronavirus lockdown.

Control Your News Intake

It is no surprise that the local television stations and internet are buzzing with negativity. Unfortunately, these media outlets move from one crisis to the next, as if crisis is a commodity. To make matters worse, it seems like the most negative and sensational stories make it to the top of whichever website or news channel you happen to be browsing.

Take this opportunity to go online and vet out responsible news outlets. If you want to stay on top of the current crisis, use a site like Microsoft or WHO to follow the pandemic in your area. Both sites provide real-time information about the virus.

Explore sites like NPR (National Public Radio) for non-sensational news. For political news, I have found that Politico and The Hill publish a more non-partisan news delivery. Avoid sites like NBC, CNN or Fox News, which peddle ‘opinion’ over actual news.

When you wake up and have your coffee, make a commitment to check in on the news for the first hour of your day. Not a lot will change over the next 24 hours. Focus the rest of your day on being productive.

Teach Your Children

It may seem like suddenly caring for your children every day, rather than sending them off to school, can be taxing. However, this may be the perfect time to teach them things they will never learn in school. Perhaps you have always had an artistic leaning? Drawing and playing with your children can actually resurrect your long lost, creative child.

Think of the creative things you did as a child and how different it is for children today, who tend to live inside of their hand held devices. Play a game of changing nursery rhyme endings, or use the dictionary to see if you can increase their vocabulary. There are online pianos and free picture editing software. Snap photos and encourage your kids to change them into a Picasso by using their many artistic filters. Teach them how they can transform the usual - to make the world a place of inspiration and discovery.

Art is usually the first thing to be abandoned as our educational institutions cut back. This may be the perfect time to awaken their creativity and ability to tap their inspiration for life-long self-direction.

Re-evaluate Your Business

Usually, we are caught up ‘in’ our business and have little time to work ‘on’ our business. This might be a great opportunity to examine your current product offerings and brainstorm on innovative changes. Look at your channel of distribution and see if you can expand into new markets.

If it has been awhile since you looked at your marketing efforts, this might be the perfect time to create a free Mailchimp email-drip campaign. If you have never put together a client list, this would be a great time to go through your contacts to create a list of friends and happy clients, which will ultimately lead to referral business.

During times of crisis, innovation and creativity abound. Don’t spend your day wishing things were different. Instead, see the time as an opportunity to reach into your creative genius. Allow yourself to tackle the things that the normal hustle and bustle of business life had prevented.

Change Up Your Diet

Over the years, you may not have found the time to explore healthy recipes that include things like Chia seeds or Quinoa. Rather than grab packaged breakfast bars, look for recipes that use Quinoa, bananas, chocolate, oatmeal or nuts to prepare breakfast bars that are gluten free!

These breakfast bars are also a great low calorie snack to munch on during the day. While you may have fallen victim to a routine grocery list in the past, now is the time to change that up. Using this time to learn how to cook differently will serve you for the rest of your life.

If you take the time to examine your eating habits, you can build up your immune system and even eliminate toxins. Use this time to create recipes for more nutritious eating.

Love Your Family

Many people have relied on email to keep in contact with their family members living far away. With free interfaces like Zoom, you can video conference and keep in contact with each other. I’ve heard many people mention that they have had more intimate conversations with family members since this crisis started.

Perhaps you haven’t had the time to figure out how to download Skype or join conference sharing sites that don’t require downloads. Zoom is one of my favorites because you can change what appears behind you to make it look like you are at the beach, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge, or among a forest of grass. In the Settings tab, you can change your kitchen into a live Caribbean backdrop, complete with swaying palm trees and rolling waves!

Online Social Events

Now that you have figured out how to interact through online conference sharing, why not invite friends for an online happy hour or book sharing evening?

Just because we have to honor live social distancing, this doesn’t mean that we have to remain anti-social. Think of creative reasons for coming together. Exchange and share healthy recipes, tips for keeping your children inspired, or share your list of favorite Netflix movies.

Learn Mindfulness

Forget watching normal television. Why not check out the many TED events on Youtube? Whether you would like to learn how to live more consciously, control you sense of worry, or find positive meaning in chaos, there are virtually thousands of TED talks from the world’s foremost ‘thought leaders.’

During this time of uncertainty, you can actually learn how to develop stress relieving habits that can serve you for years to come. In addition to TED talks, you can now find a few Gaia uploads that are free on Youtube. I like Gaia because it is an earth-centered and environment-friendly science channel.

Most Smart TVs have apps that you can access to easily load Youtube without typing it into a browser. Additionally, these apps make connecting the TV to your computer absolete. Now is the time to figure out how many apps you can use on your Smart TV!

Long ago, when I moved to Lake Tahoe, I embraced the internet because living in the mountains required the adaptation of technology for my remote business needs. Our close-knit community thrives among the spirit of creative and healthy people who may have to shovel 5 feet of snow everyday! We are hearty and remain optimistic that in time, this too shall pass.

Living in Lake Tahoe allows us to enjoy the outdoors. However, we also ensure that our community supports its smaller and organic stores. Our progressive life style may actually point the way for the future of what the rest of America might adopt. Relying on international distribution channels that fall apart during a time of crisis reveals just how misguided our super-stores are in America.

I wouldn’t want to live anywhere but Lake Tahoe. Whether you are thinking of buying or selling a home at Lake Tahoe, I would love to help you.

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