EP: 191 - Things We Would Have Never Done Without The Lockdown

Today's episode is called Things We Would Have Never Done Without The Lockdown, and just to put some perspective, we're not really locked down. 

1:05 Freedom, Purpose, and Happiness

Let me just say I know we already called it Lockdown in one of our other episodes. I think it was the most recent one, How We're Handling the Lockdown.

I think people are doing an amazing job finding their sense of freedom and purpose and happiness. And that's a little bit what I wanted to talk about today, what showed up in my world to give me a little sense of greater lightness than I wouldn't have had and to hope that everyone can find it.

KISMA

The innovative spirit, the human spirit.

Nick

The human spirit is astounding.

KISMA

1:44 New Ways

I think we have to start there. The human spirit is astounding. You know, Zoe's in New York City. I don't actually know if she's doing this, but I have other clients and friends in New York City and they're doing the 7:00 PM clap for all the frontline workers. People have personally said to me, I look forward to 7:00 PM and we open our windows and clap for all the medical workers and frontline workers. Like, that's so New York. It's amazing.

KISMA

The birthday parades, those are so cool. The porch concerts. I see that with a lot of my friends from the orchestra. They're playing on their porches and they're finding new ways to do things.

Nick

New ways, above and beyond. That's what the human spirit does.

KISMA

2:45 There is a Connection

One of the things that happened for me that brought a lot of lightness is, I had the class that I graduated with in 1979. We had a reunion this past summer, which was a hoot. So then I get this invite from Lenny, who listens to the podcast. He sends an invite for a happy hour and I'm like, oh, this could be cool. 

When do I do happy hours? 

By the time it's happy hour there, it's like 3:00 PM here on Friday. And I'm usually still working. But I was like, no, this seems kind of fun. 

So we show up on zoom and I'm on zoom all the time. But it’s kind of stunning watching everyone be the same but how many years later and seeing where the guys connect in a certain way and the girls connect in a certain way and then we all connected. 

We might have different political views or different health views or whatever, but at the end of the day, there is a connection and there's, I think a deep respect and a deep love and a deep caring and also kind of like, oh, this is so cool. It is so fascinating to watch how the conversation goes.

KISMA

13:15 Consistency

What else would you have never done without the lockdown?

Nick

Oh, that's a good question. I'm pretty much in my schedule. Because of you we're eating in a lot, eating good food and obviously we're all eating in right now, but I don't know what I'd be eating. We're great eaters. We're healthy eaters, but every day, consistently, thanks to you, I've been feeding myself well.

KISMA

Yeah, I would've never learned to be as consistent with cooking. Before it'd be like, “Oh, we don't have anything. Let's just go out”, and we could still just order out. But the shopping thing, it really taught me how to plan a little bit better around cooking. I was already on that before all this happened, but I didn't know that I would have taken it so seriously.

Nick

16:44 This is a Really Unique Human Experience

One of the cool things I got to do was my sister texted me about a week ago and they decided to do a project. She teaches at Cranbrook. She's a history teacher, and one of the things that 

they're doing is documenting. They're like, “this is a really unique human experience. We're going to document it through stories”. So they're teaching all the kids to do podcast episodes. She knew that I had a podcast and wanted me to talk to the kids about interviewing people because they're supposed to interview somebody who would be having a different experience. And I thought it was really cool, I would have never got a chance to do that without this.

Nick

20:48 Laughter is the Best Medicine

I think for me it's just going back to being able to get a little bit silly, connect with people that are from my past, but now in my present and they're amazing. Each and every one of them are so much fun and having these little text threads that make me laugh in the middle of the day. There's just something about that care that goes through a group of people that's pretty special.

So my illuminated thought is, laughter really is the best medicine. So if you're not laughing out there, find someone to just take you back to the silliest of times, where you're almost embarrassed and laugh because it's a really, really good thing.

KISMA