It is not news to anyone reading this: working in a library is hard. Doing any kind of public-facing customer service work is always hard, and right now a lot of things are coming together to make it more complicated.

We can’t fix that for you. Sorry.

But this semester, we are going to provide small weekly stress-management/happiness builder ideas. They aren’t going to make all your issues magically solve themselves. But, everyone can use a reminder to take a step back and breathe.

One of the very best things you can do in a bad day is to get up and move your body around. If you want to be grand and say “exercise” or “training” that’s fine. But really, it’s just getting up, moving around, getting your heart beating faster, getting more oxygen pumped around.

Go for a walk around the block. Do some jumping around the office. Take a lunchtime swim at the Y. Walk to work. Go home and grab your bike. Or, try some fun videos. Copied above is an exercise video from Joe Wick. We shared a lot of his videos during the quarantine – he’s always fun and he has a positive energy that helps to make it fun to move around with him.

Moving around on a regular schedule is helpful for a longer term situation of stress reduction, and maybe helping to build happiness. If you want to make that a regular part of your life: great! It will probably be a nice thing for you.

But for today, we only care about today. So, go move around and get happier today!