August is National Wellness Month to focus on self-care, managing stress and promoting healthy routines. Create wholesome habits in your lifestyle all month long and see how much better you feel! Research has shown self-care helps manage stress and promotes happiness. Need ideas?
- Drink more water and eat more fruits and veggies
- Monitor your sleep and make adjustments for better sleep habits
- Join a yoga, walking, or aerobics class.
- Learn to meditate.
Visit www.wellnessmonth.com for more ideas including a 31-day wellness challenge calendar and ways to connect with others looking to enhance their wellness.
Meditation App: Many studies have found that meditation is a great stress reliever for those who practice regularly. If you never have, try building a new practice with Simple Habit. They are currently offering a free premium membership for those who email to request it at [email protected] They offer guided meditations for adults and children.
Travel to Amazing Places on Earth: Google Street View makes you feel like you’re walking down the road to wherever you want. Just enter your ideal location, and you’ll be transported. Need suggestions, Google provides recommendations such as Gallipoli Turkey; the Grand Canyon, and the iconic Gare de Lyon in Paris.
Pixlr Photo Editor: Have some digital photos you’d like to retouch? Pixlr’s photo editor is similar in a lot of ways to Adobe PhotoShop, but it’s 100% free to use and functional on both desktop and mobile platforms.
Virtual Volunteer Opportunities: VolunteerMatch, a well-known site for finding volunteer opportunities in your community has now developed a hub to share new virtual volunteer opportunities arising during this COVID-19 situation. Currently, there are nearly 700,000 volunteer opportunities posted in their nationwide bank.
Help Restore Pollinator Populations: The Alt National Park Service is offering free seed packets to support bees, butterflies and other pollinators. You can request your free packet of flower seeds online.
Engage in Thought Discourse: Kialo is an easy to use, yet powerful online platform to engage in thoughtful discussion, understand different points of view, and help with collaborative decision-making. With Kialo, you can take on issues big or small, build consensus on a topic, and explore every aspect of a discussion. Kialo allows you to be more thorough and thoughtful about the issues that matter most to you, and the world around you. Join the dialogue at https://www.kialo.com/.
Gardening Skills: Are you one of the many who has taken up gardening during the stay at home order? Better Homes & Gardens has provided a page filled with links to gardening courses to help you develop your green thumb.
Free Access to National Parks: Fees have been temporarily suspended for most national parks. Visit the website of your favorite or local national park for information on reopening dates and guidelines and requirements for physical distancing and safe access.
Wi-Fi Locator for L.A. County: Any member of the public can dial 2-1-1 or can visit the site directly for information on various Internet related services, such as Internet access services for students, the location of free WiFi spots throughout the County (including free hotspots located in or nearby County libraries and County parks) and contact information for both residential and commercial broadband Internet providers and mobile (cellular) Internet providers serving the address.
Uber Eats is waiving delivery fees for all orders from independently owned restaurants through the duration of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Free Food Delivery: Many restaurants offering free delivery, usually with only minimum purchase requirement. See a long listing of restaurants offering free delivery at The Krazy Coupon Lady website.
Professional Development
LinkedIn is offering free business development courses through LinkedIn Learning that are centered on remote working, including Tips for Working Remotely, Building Resilience, Executive Presence on Video Conference Calls and Managing Virtual Teams.
Coursera: Offers courses taught by top instructors from world-class universities and companies, so you can learn something new anytime, anywhere. Hundreds of free courses give you access to on-demand video lectures, homework exercises, and community discussion forums. Paid courses provide additional quizzes and projects as well as a shareable Course Certificate upon completion.
edX: Find hundreds of courses available online from top colleges, universities and large employers. Courses are free and you have the option to pay if you want to receive a certificate, credit or complete a degree program.
Future Learn: Partnered with Australia’s leading universities and the Australian Trade and Investment Commission, they offer free online courses designed to expand your skill set and further your career. Subjects cover a broad range including literature, history, business and management, health and medicine, politics and society, language, psychology and mental health, and law.
Harvard University: Harvard makes available several courses for free through their online learning platform. Courses are offered in computer science, finance, accounting, religious studies, social sciences, health and medicine, art and design, mathematics, and humanities.
Open Culture: Take online courses from the world’s top universities for free. You will find 1,500 online courses from universities like Stanford, Yale, MIT, Harvard, Oxford and more. You can learn everything you want–from history, philosophy and literature, to physics, biology, psychology, and computer science.
Technology Resources:
Google is allowing G Suite for Education customers to use the Hangouts Meet premium functionality for free through July 1, 2020. You can host virtual meetings with up to 250 people and live streams with up to 100,000 viewers. Additionally, you can save recordings of your meetings to Google Drive.
Teaching Resources:
LabsLand is providing online access to actual laboratories (not simulations) through school closures. The program is typically used to teach engineering, electronics, physics and other lab courses. The labs are located in 24 universities around the world, and students access them through a browser, to experiment and manipulate the labs remotely. Contact the company at mailto:[email protected] with “COVID-19” in the subject line or visit their COVID-19 web page.
Harvard University provides LabXchange as an always- free resource that provides digital content compiled from multiple sources in the sciences, including lab simulations, which educators can mix into their own learning narratives and share with students. Among the functionality provided are social networking, class groupings, discussion forums and “mentorship” (to bring learners together with educators and researchers around the world).
Workouts Streamed Online:
Blink Fitness has made several workout videos available for free on their Facebook page and the workouts remain on their page to access later on. Workouts include a stretch routing, arms & abs, upper body & core, and long, lean, & sculpted leags.
Orangetheory Fitness is offering free “Orangetheory at Home” workout videos on their YouTube channel.
GoodHousingkeeping.com compiled a long list of different studios and gyms that are offering free fitness classes streamed online for a limited time. Offerings include high-intensity exercise, yoga, celebrity trainers and dance!
VeryWellFit.com has also compiled a long list of sites who are offering free online streamed workouts during the COVID-19 outbreak.
Planet Fitness is offering a daily exercise class at 7:00 pm EST streamed live on their Facebook page.
Pay it Forward
Donate to The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation: The Gates Foundation has committed $100 million for work on COVID-19 globally, with another $5 million to support efforts in the greater Seattle area. You can join us to advance this work by giving to our Combating COVID-19 Fund.
Donate to the United Nations COVID-19 Response Fund: You can take action to help the World Health Organization detect, prevent and respond to the coronavirus by giving to the COVID-19 Solidarity Response Fund.
Donate Blood: The American Red Cross is still accepting donations from eligible and healthy individuals to support the efforts to fight the effects of the pandemic. For a limited time, those donating blood, platelets, or AB plasma receive a $5 Amazon gift card.
Donate Supplies to Local Hospitals and Medical Facilities: Check with your nearest hospital or medical facility to see which supplies they need. Many have created dedicated web pages with information. For example, Pomona Valley Medical Center is requesting donations for masks, cleaning supplies and other materials.
