Are you tired of these words yet? Just so over it? Cooped-up, overwhelmed, worried, exhausted?

Yeah, I know. Although if I’m going to be real here, from the outside my own day to day life doesn’t really look much different during this quarantine than it did before. I’m an introvert who’s been running my art business from home since 1993. I live out in the country now, and before this started I usually only went into town once a week anyway.

But even for those of us whose daily lives haven’t been turned completely upside down and inside out from layoffs and closures and kids at home, everything feels so different, right? It’s weird and draining for everyone. Fear, insecurity, disagreements, anger, more fear . . . it can be a constant cycle of negativity if we let it.

I jotted down a few thoughts in my sketchbook I’ve been going back to, kind of like little mantras – and they’ve helped me start to get out of that weird emotional rut. Maybe you’ll be able to relate:

Because simplifying our lives starts from the inside out, right? Letting go of anxiety, downsizing, freeing ourselves from physical and emotional complications, becoming content with what we already have – all this uncomplicates us.

You don’t have to be way out in the country or have a farm to live more sustainably and simply. It’s about uncomplicating our minds. We keep so much clutter in there: negative thoughts, fears, worries, regrets. Isn’t it time to let that shit go, to quiet our minds? Now more than ever this is true for me, maybe it is for you too.

So pretty much I’ve been keeping busy pulling weeds in the garden beds. Out here I suspect I could pull weeds all day every day and never be done for the rest of my life, so it’s a pretty good thing for me to focus on right now anyway. What’s been your favorite way to quiet your mind during all this?