It’s been seven years since I last posted to Mindful Survival. As the saying goes, “life gets in the way”. Shortly after the last post, I got busy with what was a dream job for me (managing marketing and communications for the Brewers of Indiana Guild) and a bunch of other life changes. In addition to taking this site offline, I also stopped making music and drawing.

This year I got back into making music (listen at tigersharkmusic.com). I’ve started drawing again. And with so much going on in the world—a massive pandemic, socio-political upheaval, and economic catastrophe—I figured now is as good a time as any to start helping people by sharing resources for mindfulness and emergency preparation that have helped me.

Why me?

Unlike a large swath of the American population (i.e., those who refuse to be good citizens by wearing masks to help protect others from COVID-19), I don’t consider myself to be special or exceptional.

I do, however, consider myself to be extremely fortunate. In the grand scheme of things, I’m lucky to be alive at this moment in time (in spite of daily “if it bleeds, it leads” headlines, we all are, actually). When I think of the countless humans and other living beings alive now and those who have come before me, I have a great life. I’m healthy. I have a loving and supportive family. I have enough of what I need to live a content life. Many have suffered in much more profound ways than I have.

But since I shut this site down, a lot has happened. Within less than half a year in 2015, I separated from the woman I’d been in love with for over a decade, lost three of my dogs to old age and cancer, and got divorced. In the subsequent five years, I’ve lost loves and friendships, gotten rid of many valued possessions and a great home, and a few months ago—due to the economic impacts of the pandemic—I was laid off from a job I moved cross-country for .

I wasn’t sure I’d make it through 2015. Every waking moment, for a seeming interminable amount of time, felt unbearable.

But my family embraced me with their full love and support. I met regularly with a great therapist (after meeting a few not-so-great therapists). I did something I never thought I’d do, exercising in a group HIIT (high intensity interval training) class with friends, which helped me become physically stronger than ever. I developed a “toolkit” of practices to help me make it to 2016.

In the ensuing years, I’ve relied on my toolkit to maintain a sense of balance in my life emotionally, mentally, and physically. I still have bad days, but I have a lot of great days, too. I’m getting by.

So why should you care about what I share through Mindful Survival? As I said before, I’m a relatively unexceptional person. I don’t have an academic or professional background in psychology, or psychotherapy, or emergency survival. I’m not a military guy, and I’m not stocking up a bunker, waiting for the world to end.

But I have put extensive effort into maintaining my well-being and learning about the most effective and efficient ways to have a reasonable balance in life. I’ve also been studying mindfulness for decades (starting with Jon Kabat-Zinn’s incredible book, Wherever You Go There You Are).

There are a lot of resources out there purporting to save you in one way or another. Some are great, some not so much. I figure if I can help even one person make it through a difficult time, this project will be worth it.

I’ve also studied and practiced writing and mass communications for most of my life, so perhaps I’m in a good position to be able to use these tools to share info with people who will benefit from it.

Countless people have helped me get through difficulties throughout my life, so I hope I can, as the saying goes, pay it forward.

Why now?

I turn 40 this week. Mentally, I don’t feel like I’m “middle aged”: In many ways, I can still closely associate with being a 20-year-old college kid in beautiful Bloomington, Indiana.

But physically, I’m feeling it: My knees ache after weekly hikes with my dogs in the Rockies. I’m noticing wrinkles on my neck during Zoom calls that weren’t there even a year ago. I want to sleep a lot.

Part of the desire to sleep is probably because of the seeming chaos that’s going on this year: Drifting off into another dimension is a nice way to escape.

But I recognize that’s not the best thing to do all the time. So I’m trying to maintain the sense of balance I’ve worked so hard to reach, and MindfuL Survival gives me more ways do that.

“Do what you can with what you have at the time.”

As I restart and move forward with Mindful Survival, I’ll share a range of resources that will hopefully help you get through the difficulties that inevitably crop up in daily life—especially as it seems increasingly chaotic.

We all encounter minor daily irritations and unexpected and major life-altering changes. When I was going through my divorce, one thing my therapist repeated frequently was the phrase “Do what you can with what you have at the time.”

When I first heard it, it sounded like an excuse for negative behavior: “Well, that’s what I did, so… [shrugs]”

But I quickly learned that it sums up our experience: We’re doing the best we can at any given moment. There are an infinite number of ways to deal with difficulties, and my hope is to give you at least one helpful tool that you can fall back on when you hit a rough patch, so you have more options to handle difficult situations and improve your experience.