5 ways to reach out and touch someone!
As humans, we need to have contact with others to maintain our sanity. If you are self-isolating or restricted to your house by edict, you no longer enjoy the daily and regular contacts of the others you know and relate to. This creates stress and rising concern as time goes on. Whether they keep us in our houses for 14 days or longer, it will take a long time for our external contacts to reestablish our relationships and return to any semblance of normalcy.
The list below lists five ways to stay in touch during this period- some are obvious, and some are ways that will become more common;
1. Use the telephone- Call someone, especially those that are older and alone. Take a few minutes to say I am thinking of you or to ask how they are doing. If you are not in a high-risk group and they are, ask if you can do some shopping for them. We all can help to protect those who are less able than we are.
2. Write a letter- When was the last time you wrote a letter to a loved one or an acquaintance that you know. If a letter seems too long, just write a note. This is an important part of communication that we are losing in this day of texts and emails. It is always pleasant to open your mailbox and find something other than bills or advertisements.
3. Use Social Media- For those of you who are into the social media world you can tweet, Instagram, Facebook, text, or message the people you know. You can also find applications for sending electronic cards with your personal message.
4. Live Chat- If you want to chat live while being able to see them you can use FaceTime, Skype, Zoom. There many ways and applications that allow interactive meetings for up to hundreds of people. I expect we will see more applications developed or expanded in this area as this pandemic continues. The president announced today that he would like business functions to resume by Easter. Business functioning as we knew it will take much longer than that to return to any normal level.
5. Web Meetings-For longer meetings and bigger groups, you can use Zoom or Go To Webinar for your meetings to get people together. I talked with some people this week who had zoom meetings with wine and chat. Another group had a virtual dinner party. Be creative.
Be creative but most important, reach out to those you know and stay acquainted with and strengthen and build your relationships. You need it, and they need it too.
We are in the early days of difficult times! We need to remember that we are part of our local community, our state, our nation and the world. I took part in a webinar today with 500 people joining from all around the world. You can do it too.
Buy into physical distancing to help minimize the spread of the virus. Wash your hands often. Especially after you go out. Help others in any way you can. Last but not least -REACH OUT TO OTHERS — they need to know someone cares.
Remember, we are all in this together!
