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With many major cities and even nations on shutdown due to COVID-19, many people and families are having to learn to cope with life outside of the busy-ness of normal jobs and schedules.

In our area, most non-essential stores and outlets have been closed for the next few weeks. So if the physical outlet near you isn't a grocery store, gas station, pharmacy, or laundromat, then it is likely shut down. Even at grocery stores, in order to prevent panic and empty shelves, customers must line up and a maximum of only a few of the same items per person has been put in place. Even most bank locations are closed, so while people can spend on their credit and debit cards, acquiring cash takes a bit of time as people line up at ATMs.

A Home Garden

In light of this, my wife and I decided to simply take the extra time we've been given to grow our home garden. We actually decided to start our own home garden last year, with attempts at growing cilantro, bok choy, lettuce, rosemary, figs, and a few others I can't remember.

Some were successful:

Some weren't as much:

I mean, it's not the worst rosemary bush in the world. It just looks like it's dying.

Part of the idea was to produce a garden that had the ability, more or less, to help our little family sustain itself, in times of crisis. Of course, what we grew last year isn't helpful at all right now with COVID-19. But the extra time we now have, and with the pandemic going on, we're pretty motivated to continue to do what we can to grow our garden.

And with that, we have planted our next couple of seeds:

We're learning to re-use as much as we can, and so as a base, we're recycling a plastic egg container we're finished with. Inside each cup, where an egg once was, is now a tiny bok choy seed.

As you can see, on one side, we put a plastic bag, and the other we didn't. This is because we couldn't figure out whether or not it would be easier to lift everything with a plastic bag when we (eventually) have to move our growing plants into a bigger container.

Financial Sustenance

Not having to work much does have its perks. But the biggest downside, of course, is the lack of financial income with which to pay off utility bills, life expenses, and other similar things.

With global markets on meltdown, it's kind of difficult to be financially optimistic. I mean, take a look at this insane chart:

Photo taken from [macrotrends](https://www.macrotrends.net/2490/sp-500-ytd-performance)

The Fed has also cut rates to 0 (which I think is scarier than the market crashing). And these trends don't seem like they'll be stopping any time soon.

It's a good thing to remember, though, that a global economy doesn't necessarily dictate what an individual and his or her own local community (whether it's family, neighbors, religious community, etc.) can do. We were lucky enough to begin putting safeguards on our personal finances last year, which I detailed in a series of blog posts called Be Your Own Bank.

But that taking those steps last year was just practice for what we're having to do now. All the principles I talk about, from understanding what money actually is, to budgeting appropriately, to having a long-term objectives orientation immensely helps my financial habits. Even now, I see investment opportunities as the market crashes, rather than panicking about losing fake capital.

The Mental Game

In all this, I've realized that surviving, and even thriving, during a time of crisis is really a mental game. External realities may have effects on all of us, but it is up to each individual person whether he or she will submit to the panic and fear that is now widespread.

As a student of psychology, I learned that the part of our brains which regulates emotion is called the Amygdala (my professor used the mnemonic Amy G. Dala). This small little part of our brains is responsible for emotions including fear, anxiety, and aggression, and activates our “fight-or-flight” response to a situation. In other words, it's often responsible for the stressful emotions we have in life.

I think, for many of us, being in the middle of a pandemic or crisis often activates these stressful emotions. We're in panic mode, and therefore very susceptible to ideas which we think will get us the fastest to safety. But those ideas are often not the most coherent, logical, or even helpful in the long-run.

So with that, I definitely recommend taking time (now that we have lots of it) to meditate. Meditating an amazing exercise which helps us make better decisions, detach from the fear and anxiety the world tries to put onto us, and even physically heal our brains! It's a win-win, despite the crazy pandemic going on.

And when our mental game is in check, we come to know what we as individuals can do to help ourselves and others around us, even in a global crisis.

With that, I'll leave off today's blog with a quote from Nelson Mandela:

May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.

Have a great week!

Header Image credit goes to Pixabay.