We’ve all had unique challenges over the past year. Michael Bane, who lives in the Berkshires, talks about his coping strategies during the pandemic. #SelfCareASL ID+Transcript: TITLE “Self Care Tips with Michael” Text is light green on a navy background. MICHAEL B, a Deaf black man in his 40’s stands in front of a pergola in a yard. He his wearing an forest green sweater, glasses and has short cropped hair and a mustache, and wears hearing aids. MICHAEL: On March 13 I was told by my employer that we’d be staying home indefinitely. Of course I was concerned because there might be some downsizing ahead of us and cuts in salary or furloughs or hours reduced. Naturally, I had to think of myself well how am I going to get by? and pay bills and so forth? So, certainly is a lot to be concerned about. ON-SCREEN TEXT: How did this change affect you? Yeah, I felt a lot of concern. There was a lot of pressure for me. I was experiencing anxiety and restlessness and things I used to enjoy. I found no pleasure in them anymore. I was easily distracted. So I had to take a good hard look at my attitude and change that, change my attitude in order to reduce some of the pressure and stress that I was feeling. ON-SCREEN TEXT: What do you do for self-care? Well, we found some activities that we can do together. My wife and I started gardening, planting fruits and vegetables and so forth. ON-SCREEN garden with Kale. This my first attempt at growing a pumpkin- I nailed it. (Michael holds up a pumpkin, garlic, jarred fruits.) We bought some baby chicks, as well. We started raising them for meat and eggs and so on. ON-SCREEN: 4 chickens in a coop. And I’ve also taken a liking to painting too, because it’s an activity that my wife and I can do together. (Michael holds up a landscape painting.) This research online and found some free or reduced cost or COVID reduces online courses and analytics which is my background. I’m an analyst and I was able to get in some professional development time to improve my skills as an analyst. (Michael holds up a analytics certificate.) I’ve also enjoyed passing the time watching various videos and VLOGs from different sign languages like British sign language and International Sign Language and I’ve been brushing up and improving my comprehension on the other sign languages. It’s been good, enjoyable, very interesting. Yeah, what I have is this small little stationary bike, bipedal kind of thing and makes it really easy while I’m watching TV, I can pedal away and, you know, of course we can’t go outside, it’s something pretty simple and easy to do and after that I get a little additional exercise you know that gets my circulation going, heart pumping and so forth and typically I do something every morning a little exercise, whether it’s a quick stretch or jumping jacks or that sort that gives me a good kickstart to keep me upbeat for the rest of the day and otherwise I feel great, you know, while I’m working, I’m positive. ON-SCREEN TEXT: Have there been any silver linings? Yeah, well one thing I have noticed is how people talk about the quarantine and being stuck at home is just a made it social fodder for their family and, you know, people get on each other’s nerves. Well, my wife and I, we’ve been together for a long time and we’re confident and respectful with each others need to go off and do our own thing for a short bit of time then come back together. In fact if anything else has made me certain up how solid our relationship is.