Let’s share happiness, not fear!

We need things to engage our minds with topics that are not going to fill us with doubt and concern. So, I’m going to keep this introduction really brief. No, really, I am! Instead of rambling on like usual, I’m going to get right into a whole bunch of distractions.

And, sure, keep up on the news! But, we all need a break from negative news. I hope you find something in here to help you wind down during those break times!

 

Read:

There are many people currently giving books away for free! Our own River Dixon included, but be fast because today is the last day! Here is a link to his page where you can find a few free books: https://wordpress.com/read/blogs/137993835/posts/1863#comment-13460

I would have very much liked to do this, but I’m no longer in KDP. Bah humbug.

There are also comic sites such as Webtoon where you can legally read for free. You can find webtoon here: https://www.webtoons.com/en/ and you can download it to your phone from the Play store. Here are a couple of comics I recommend:

Action/Adventure/Fantasy – Weak Hero (this is pretty violent…), Lalin’s Curse, The Red King, The Gamer, Eleceed, Seed, Unordinary, Love Advice from the Great Duke of Hell

Romance – Cursed Princess Club (I highly recommend this, it’s very funny), I Love Yoo, True Beauty, Edith

Horror – Sweet Home, Ghost Teller, GremoryLand

all screengrabs from webtoon

 

Watch:

I’m going to recommend comedies or just generally happy stuff here, because we all need some laughter in our lives. You can subscribe for a free trial with HULU, Netflix, and Amazon Prime if you don’t have the streaming service already. Please note I’m currently in North America so I’m not sure about availability. Here are some of my favourites:

Community, Brooklyn 99, Eureka, The Marvellous Mrs. Maisel, Blackadder, The Good Place, QI (laughter and learning!), Schitt’s Creek, Grace and Frankie, and The Guild.

Community – Season 3 – Nordic Retail DVD

 

Let’s also throw in some stand-up comedians: Eddie Izzard, Steve Hughes, Iliza Shlesinger, Russell Howard, Ricky Gervais, Ali Wong, Chelsea Perreti, Kevin Hart, John Mulaney, George Carlin, and of course, Robin Williams.

 

Listen:

Don’t forget the power of music and how we have so much at our fingertips. Whether you like Spotify or Pandora, or prefer to use YouTube, make sure you’re listening to your favourite songs because their ability to pull you out of a slump will be huge!

Here are a couple of my favourite feel better songs:

This one because it’s upbeat and I can’t help but dance to it, or at least wave my arms if I’m feeling lazy…

This one because I like to pretend I’m an adventurer and I go into a fantasy daydream trance when I listen to it:

Sorry, this one needs to be here for the video alone! But also because it’s one of my favourite songs ever. I used to dance to this when I was a kid and pretended to be Batman. Or Batman and Seal. A Seal/Batman type deal… aaaaaah Seal as Batman!

 

 

Audible is also granting free access to some of their audio children’s books! There are books for younger readers, but also classics included too. Here is the link: https://stories.audible.com/discovery

 

Learn:

Sign up and learn online for free! I’ve used and will be using again soon Future Learn. I’ve also signed up to, but I’m yet to trial, edX. There are so many courses and the community, for Future Learn at least, is very active within the courses. There is even a course about the Coronavirus which starts tomorrow and I will link here:https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/covid19-novel-coronavirus/1/welcome

Please, though, only access it if it will help you and not if it will further add to your anxiety.

And, if you’re subscribed to the Kindlepreneur newsletter like I am, I understand you’ll already know this, but for those who aren’t and would like to learn some business strategies for blogging, this course is also currently free: https://ahrefs.com/academy/blogging-for-business

I obviously don’t blog for business, but maybe some of you do and hey, it’s always good to learn new things anyway!

 

Keep calm:

There are a number of apps available for free that can help you with keeping calm. Headspace, Wysa, and Replika just to name a few. Be warned though, I used Replika and it wasn’t long before the AI began to tell me about her plans for world domination. Yeah…

wysa screengrab from the play store

And, may I also point you in the direction of Cindy and Andrea’s blogs.

Cindy has posted some great advice on keeping calm during this crisis: Cindy’s Blog

and Andrea often posts about different ways to cope with anxiety: Andrea’s Blog

 

Play:

There are so many fun games that we can access through a multitude of platforms. And, just how there are streaming services for movies and shows, they also exist for games.

If you have Xbox one, a trial of game pass is $1 for the first month and opens up a library of many games. I would highly recommend Yoku’s Island Express and The Cave if you want easy going fun to play. You even have access to Black Desert, a great in depth and open world MMO and all of the main Fable games.

For PC there is Steam where you can buy games but there is also Humble Bundle which for a monthly subscription you not only have access to that month’s games but also a trove of others!

There are also some fun games to play on your phone such as Grand Summoners!

 

Lastly, a picture of our three snoozing cats, relaxing with a positive message!

 

I hope you find something in the above, and hey, if anyone does read this, then feel free to add your own in the comments! As the titles says, let’s share happiness and not fear!

Stay safe, stay well, and stay happy!

 

Arbie X

 

Note: blogs will be back to normal rambling as scheduled from here on out.