What helps you to stay positive?

Keeping in touch with my workmates through WhatsApp.
Trying to stay positive, then the news comes on! ?

Maw absolutely brilliant. ? I salute you! Inanimate objects, what are they like? I've been saying for years that they never do what they are told!
Apart from a bit of humour every day I too am enjoying the blossoming of nature, watching the birds having the luxury of going about their daily lives and being thankful that they are.

Houndi
How can you dog text your friends? Surely his paws are too big?

Having a creative hobby with one or two projects on the go.
Entertaining myself with reading, watching telly, etc.
Simple pleasures such as seeing the spring flowers come up.

During my daily walks it's been so heartening to see parents engaging with their children. Crouching down and looking for signs of spring. Pointing out the birds in the trees and encouraging them to listen to the birdsong. Picking daisies on the grass. Searching for mini-bugs. Cycling or jogging as a family. Walking the dog. I think perhaps despite the downside of the current situation, I feel some children will remember this as a happy time of their lives.

Receiving little video shots of my GD who lives 5000 miles away. She sings, dances and performs for me and she's only 2!

Watching minimal news. Meditating. Doing tai chi and gentle exercise at home. Watching funny you tube clips from old comedies. Reading. Talking to friends and family. All of this just diverts me from depressing thoughts, minute by minute, and I think that’s all we can do at the moment.

https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202004/medium-922125-img-20200331-wa0010.jpg https://www.gransnet.com/uploads/talk/202004/medium-382815-img-20200327-093859.jpg

Regular contact with family - video calls, WhatsApp, photos,
Physical activity- Joe Wicks, gardening, walking, hula hoop ! ( Found it hiding in the cupboard under the stairs when I was 'tidying'),
Faith - daily prayers and online Mass,
Keeping busy- reading, Gransnet, knitting, cooking/ eating!!,
Funnies- having a good laugh at some of the things that arrive via WhatsApp from family and friends.
Trying to take one day at a time, accepting the things I cannot change.
Seeing rainbows and support NHS posters in people's windows on my daily walk.. here's mine, for my son who is frontline NHS, and all NHS workers and carers.

Enjoy the beautiful Spring day. Really look, smell, listen.

Avoid the news etc. Just have a day away from it.

I've been trying online exercise (I'm VERY unfit). It exhausts me but makes me feel happier after. This is good www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4ploouAfWI&fbclid=IwAR3OYvUzz75ztZJuX6HuVmV2HfQbqlDrHbyibU0CDuSgg_EC2MSkWLjiZiA&app=desktop

I love to paint with watercolours but I have to say this last week I’ve done none as I’ve been gripped by a book called The Belle Fields and it’s sequel by Lora Adams. An easy read but once I got into it I found I couldn’t put it down. My kindle was red hot hahaha. Got it on Amazon for a snip. Hope she does some more but for now back to painting - bliss.

Missed my Guardian April Fool this year and felt that there was no reason for the agreement that it would be in bad taste to cheer the readers up - had the Llandudno goats not been the headline in every paper, I would have thought that would have been this year's AF, but at least I had a good chortle at the photos!

Knowing that in the evening I will have FaceTime with my daughter, son-in-law, and grandson.

I was so fed up of the constant whingeing and criticism by news reporters of what is being achieved in this country to fight the virus, that I switched them off and just watch the official 'Boris broadcast'. I now feel so much more positive! Getting out in my garden and the fresh(er) air really helps a lot. I also set myself one task a day that I've been putting off so I really feel I've achieved something at the end of the day. Only one task because I'm trying to make the most of the spare time too and have 11 weeks to go yet! I count my blessings because I'm surrounded by them. And I'd forgotten jigsaws! Thank you.

My half an hour walk. Baking, cooking, reading, playing word blitz and quiz planet on my iPad, and drinking a nice glass of gin and tonic.

Listening to Classic FM, reading, taking time to make something nice for tea with what I have in.
Cuddling my cat.
Missing my friends, not so many of us now but meeting up was what I looked forward to. We do phone, but they are not home alone and I miss my late husband terribly. It’s all really heightened how on my own I really am. But enough! I count my blessings. A roof over my head, enough to eat, heating and lighting.
My Faith is important to me. I take my prayer time more than ever.
My GC are having a glorious time with loving parents. I feel so gladly warm inside about that.

Music - I am researching women composers on Spotify and have uncovered some gems - Rebecca Dale is wonderful.

Going out for our daily walk, been able to FaceTime my granddaughters, who I miss not seeing, but at the end of the day know there’s a lot more people in this situation and when it’s all over knowing hopefully that we will be able to see them fit and well. It’s all about keeping safe for us and our families

Looking forward to retirement and not having to work full-on at home!

@Luckygirl - try Janet Wheeler, living woman composer; brilliant

For me there’s only one positive. My loved ones and I are safe! I really miss rushing around all the time and feel lazy and pointless doing jobs around the house. I can only successfully do these when I’m limited time wise. If I have loads of time to do something then nothing gets done properly. The quiet life is not for me nor is routine. I am in less contact with friends and family rather than more. My children are busy with their children and their jobs and my friends are all busy as well. I’ve no interest in craft projects and never will have. I want life to go back exactly as it was before. Can’t understand these people who like to potter around.

I am a positive person anyway. My family are fine, daughter still lives with us as she is saving the deposit to buy her own house. She is working from home but we have a caravan which is parked in our back garden and she is able to work in there. We downsized from our large Victorian semi to a two bedroom bungalow last year and my husband is busy decorating. The dining room should be finished tomorrow.

Life just doesn't feel any different.I am doing all the things I normally do. I am still catching up on the backlog of undone admin etc that existed from before the shut down. Doing housework and gardening. The only difference is that all the meetings, even my exercise class are on line.

I am a bit like Hetty, usually a fairly upbeat person and I am just approaching the shut down in my usual practical manner. Seeing what the rules as laid down by government and obeying them, not gettingly unnecessarily obsessive about hygiene issues, not spending hours online. I have other things to do. Getting up, dressing and following my usual routine.

I am not letting this pandemic cause me to lose sleep, so I wake pu bright and breezy every day.

Thank you GrannyRose - I will get on to that. I have also just discovered Rebecca Clarke - born in the Victorian era and lived to 93, dying in 1979. Just listening to her viola sonata - it is stunning.

I am quite an optimistic person and in this situation we have now I feel it is important to keep feeling like this. I have to keep reminding myself that although I cannot see my family at the moment and I mainly have to stay in, I am actually very lucky that I can amuse myself and I have a garden to get some fresh air. There is always someone so much worse off than us.

The fact that I'm one of Jehovah's Witnesses and knowing that all this madness will be dissolved one day.

Open to 'polite' discussions