Remaining Sane During an Insane Time

How to Not Lose Your Sanity while being at home and spending your time online and remaining safe. These are in no particular order. I am also not an expert but I’ve been at home for several years and the days still fly by.

1. Turn off the news if it’s on all day. How do you stay informed?

a. Choose a single morning show on a major network such as NBC, CBS, of ABC. Watch that show.

b. Watch your local news in the evening and then if you want, national news on a major network.
Having the news esp. MSNBC, or Fox on all day every day, will drive you crazy and turn you into a fringe lunatic. Turn it off. This is actually a good idea even if you're not stuck at home, except I would also add, turn off Talk Radio too.

 If you watch a lot of TV – and I do – watch Amazon Prime, DVR program, Netflix, HBO, Stars. For older TV Programs like Red Skelton, Matlock, Murder She Wrote and Diagnosis Murder I also watch Hallmark Movies and Mysteries, COZI, LAFF, Comet, FETV, TUBI. What can I say? I love older TV shows. I also try and discover shows. Lately, I’ve become fascinated by the dubbed foreign language shows on Netflix like The Protector (Turkey), Ragnarök (Norway), Diablero (Mexico), Kingdom (South Korea), Luna Nera (Italy), and Better Than Us (Russia). These are just the tip of the iceberg.

Remember all those DVD’s you bought. Watch those.

What I am saying, is on TV leave the news especially the pundits behind and discover something new or something old.

2. Try to go outside every day if weather and health permits, even for just a little bit.
3. Read a book or write a journal or blog or have a project to do.

4. Go on Facebook and entertain your friends.

a. While you’re on Facebook, do me a favor. Unfollow every, single political - be they left or right - news site and every single organization that has a political agenda. I’ve unfollowed a bunch of them that I started out with. When they put up an agenda, and I don’t care if they are the NRA or Green Peace, they do not have your best interests at heart. This recommendation also includes MSNBC, CNN, Fox News, The Daily Wire, Mother Jones, The Western Journal, One America just to mention a few. If you really must follow a news site, follow REUTERS, the AP, BBC, NPR, The Wall Street Journal and New York Times. On the last two though, just don’t follow their opinion pages. If you want a little on-line opinion in your life, subscribe to The Flip Side which publishes both Left and Right Opinions on a topic every day and sends them to your inbox. Besides, they have a great little feature called “the Bright Side” which will lighten your day. As soon as I dumped the agenda-driven sites, I felt better.

b. Too many people are unduly influenced because they get their information from one source. This makes you uninformed. Even if it sounds good, it does not make it true.

c. When you are on Facebook or Twitter or YouTube and you see something that interests you, look it up. Social sites are a horrible place to get information, and you have the entire sum of human knowledge at your fingertips. By the way, when you search use neutral terms. And don’t tell me you haven’t the time. You are stuck at home!

d. If you become so engrained by one group, I guarantee folks are wondering things like, “What happened to so and so?” and “They used to be smarter.”

5. Clear the clutter online and in your house.

6. Exercise at least three times a week. Yes, I do. I actually do an elliptical trainer for at least 45 minutes 6 days a week.

7. Eat healthily. Your body is as important as your mind.

8. Take a nap.

9. Get something that challenges your mind. I do puzzles and am addicted to a coloring app on my phone.

10. Don’t do quizzes on Facebook. Since I stopped doing them, the number of spoofs to my accounts have virtually disappeared. Even the most innocuous quiz is a way for someone to find out things about you that may lead them to your passwords and other valuable information. Also never click on a link in an email or Facebook if you do not know for sure that it is from who it says it is. Invest in a separate virus program and firewall and keep it updated.

11. Enjoy a good snack. Sugar is not a good snack.

12. Stop and ask, “Does this make me happy?” If it doesn’t, stop doing it. I know that sounds like a statement of the obvious, but if something is making you mad be it a news site or a tv show, then you probably don’t need that in your life. I’m not saying you need to roam around wearing rose-colored lenses. I am saying doing that to yourself regularly will make you miserable.

Time will fly by and you don’t need to share your every thought and meal with everyone.



“It is best to remain silent and be thought a fool than to open your mouth and remove all doubt.”