In all honesty, it's tempting to rant and feel sorry for yourself in these challenging times - especially for those of us who never experienced something on this scale in their lives - but is it really helpful?
No.
It might give you some relief but this is only temporary and your rant probably adds to the stress that you and other people are already experiencing.
Although it ( sometimes ) seems fun to read other people's rants, it might make the reader feel better too, feed its Ego, is it really fun? Does it actually make you feel good? Or does it just make you feel superior? If the latter is the case, that probably isn't such a positive feeling after all.
To share from the book that I'm reading on the happiness inside of us ( from my memory plus some ad lib ):
Being unhappy feeds the ego. The ego loves to be fed. It's easy to feed.
Yet we're all searching for happiness. You won't find it by searching for it but it's a start.
It's tough to believe that it's always there ( inside of us ).
Focus on the Positives
Let's try and focus on the positives, in times where it seems to be tougher to smile than usual, where people avoid you on the streets as if you're a leper and there's hardly any conversations.
I went on a 5k walk and decided to get myself some puff pastry to bake a Dutch delicacy ( appelflappen ) after returning to my airbnb / appartment.
Half of the result is visible in the picture above this post.
This was not meant to be a recipe but I will share it anyway, it's really easy.
Ingredients: puff pastry, an apple, cinnamon, raisins.
Heat up the oven ( around 220 Degrees Celsius )
Get the amount of pieces of puff pastry that you need ( here, in The Netherlands, it's usually 10 pieces a box ) - How many 'appelflappen' do you want to make? Lay them out to defrost on an oven tray
Cut an apple into pieces.
It's up to you whether you want to keep the peel on or not. I decided to do so, to not peel away the good stuff.Put the cut up apple in a bowl and mix the pieces with raisins and plenty of cinnamon powder.
5.Make sure to take the now probably defrosted puff pastry off the plastic / foil ( that it usually comes with ). Then spread the apple, cinnamon, raisins mixture over it.
Not too much or you won't be able to close the thing. You can close it like an envelope, folding it from the 4 corners to the middle or close it in any other way.
6 Put the oven tray with the closed appelflappen into the oven and bake them for about 20 minutes. I set my timer for 22 minutes ( my favorite number ).
Some people add sugar, I myself prefer my food the natural way as much as possible. No added sugar. Besides, raisins are sweet enough already ;>)
The official Dutch 'appelflap' as this type of pastry is called, looks more or less like the bottom one on my picture above this post.
As I don't like rules and try to fight my perfectionism wherever and whenever I can, I made them all look different. This is how my appelflappen looked before I took them out of the oven:
There's still two of them left! Awesome :>)
By the way, I also bought the following tea and drank it with my appelflappen and while writing this post. I found the name very applicable in these stressful times. I would love my tension to be tamed these days:
What about you? What are you doing to survive the mayhem / stay cool under the circumstances? What cards do you have up your sleeves to not be taken over by the overall paranoia, fear and uncertainty?
I would love to hear your story in the comments.
P.S. In case you need more ways to calm down, you might wanna read my last post, it feels somewhat ignored with 0 comments so far ( but perhaps that's just my ego talking ):
