Welcome back to Moode with Lauren Elizabeth. Today we have a very special episode because amongst the times that we're in, I have a pre-recorded conversation with Jackie Osre, one of the hosts of the Morning Toast that I'm sure you know and love just as much as I do. One of my greatest friends in the world, sister forever.

We sat down and talked about self-care, work like balance, and this was before all of the world.

Craziness happened, so I'm really glad we have this pre-recorded conversation to just distract you and kind of remind you of a little bit of normalcy, but also it is some good relevant self-care tips and stuff like that.

So let's get into this episode and see what's up. All right guys, I am here podcasting in my sweatpants sweatshirts in bed. I usually have my iPad and I'm sitting in my office feeling a wee bit more professional.

Although I work from home, I'm usually not isolated in my own home. I know I'm a sloth, I don't really do much. I like to lay for long periods of time. I see you see my theory with laying is I hate standing, I hate sitting. I would always rather be horizontal. That's why I literally put a couch in my office, but I do have boundaries and I do occasionally leave the house. You know, I like to have that freedom.

And that is something I do not have anymore. I also self-isolated. Probably before everything started locking down. So everything is a little weird. Therefore my mood today is trying to stay sane. Is that a mood? It's gonna be hashtag mood. I'm trying to stay sane. Yeah, I mean, we're all going through such a crazy time. We're all in this together. The world is going through a lot of things.

Going through a lot and at the end of the day, it's something that's affecting all of us on so many different levels. And whether it's the virus or whether it's displacement because of that and jobs and isolation or just there's so many things that come with what's going on in the world right now.

Personally, what I've been up to is my family is actually in town. We have a lot going on. So just to give you a little personal update, my best mood of the week was asking for help. And I am someone who doesn't ask for help ever.

I think that I can do everything by myself. I push everything down within myself and I don't tell anyone how I'm really feeling. And I just try to be the strong one, try to be the leader. And I'm a caretaker. And I always just think I can do everything myself and I don't need any help.

So for me, asking for help is very hard. And I was pushed by my lovely boyfriend to really look at how serious things were going to get and ask for help. Not only did we know L.A. was going on lockdown very soon.

We also knew my brother was getting surgery on Monday. And it's not the best time to have a surgery and recovery and all this stuff. And I think that a lot of us have been feeling very, very anxious with everything that's going on.

So I think it was so much going on in the world. So many different things to balance that I just needed help. And I needed to admit that to myself and swallow my pride and ask my mom for help.

I think no matter what age we are, we're always going to need our moms. And that's okay. And I think even if it's not your mom, whoever it is in your life, it's okay to ask for help. It doesn't make you weak. I think it actually makes you smart and stronger because you're doing it the right way as opposed to the lazy man load.

That's what we call it when you take too many groceries inside at once. Like, yeah, you didn't have to take multiple trips, but you got all the groceries inside, but it was really hard and heavy and you might have dropped some things on the way. So why not just, you know, go take the groceries one by one. Do it the right way.

That was a weird tangent and algae. Anyway, my mom is in town with my little brother. And we are a full house here. She's helping me with taking care of my brother. He tore his ACL, which is like a quite of a big deal.

Like a quite a bit of a recovery. He's like the most injury prone person in the world, even when I got back from New York last week, he hit his head and got staples. Like I think I said, therefore, I'm just like, what is wrong with you? Like literally you need to live in a bubble. I can't even.

So I'm allowed to get mad at him because like, what are you doing with your life? Like you're a grown man, you're a professor, stop and drinker. I took him to get handsurgery of like two years ago. This is insane. Anyway, my worst mood is definitely the anxiety that has come along with all of this. I think that a lot, all of us can relate to this. We're all feeling this.

I have high anxiety on a regular basis. So when you throw in the mix, everything that's going on in the world, the amount of high end just reaches another level. And it's really hard when you want to have your shit together. And there's an unknown circumstance that really throws you off track. And I think what I've learned from it is that you have to be really gentle with yourself. And you have to not look at things black and white. You have to accept that.

Accept what's going on in the world and know that we're all in it together. And it's not just affecting one person. And we have to actually come together. And you have to be gentle with yourself in a sense of knowing that it's okay to be feeling this way because it's not normal. And everyone's feeling like this. And there's so much going on. It's okay. And what I mean when I say everything doesn't have to be black and white, it's like, I think I catastrophize or everything's totally okay.

So I had to remind myself that it's okay to be in the gray area. It's okay to have anxiety for a few hours. It's okay to relax for a few hours. It's okay to lean on my mom for a little bit. And then it's okay for part of the day to work and be healthy and work out.

I don't have to be completely perfect all day long. Wake up, work out, do the thing, work from home, know my boundaries. I can lean on those tools and do that. But it's also okay to have low moments. But I don't have to pick one or the other.

I don't have to be perfect all day. And I don't have to be miserable and depressed and anxious all day long either. So finding the gray area has been really important for someone like me that tends to look at things black and white.

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