With bitter cold temperatures on the way, Oklahoma City is heightening its emergency response to make sure no one is without a warm place to sleep.
With bitter cold temperatures on the way, Oklahoma City is heightening its emergency response to make sure no one is without a warm place to sleep.
Places like City Rescue Mission are opening their doors and expect more people than they see on most winter nights. The city said no one will be turned away, and they were out Monday warning people of the freezing temperatures.
“We’re providing rides. Embark will transport anyone to the shelters. If they get on the correct bus, it’ll take them to the closest shelter,” Jamie Caves, homeless strategy implementation manager with Key to Home OKC, said.
As winter weather nears, officials with the city of OKC said they have heightened their response to make sure no one is out in the cold too long.
Outreach teams throughout Oklahoma City spent Monday telling people about the free bus rides and where they can go for shelter. Those teams plan to be out spreading the word throughout the week.
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The OKC Homeless Alliance, City Rescue Mission, Pivot and Sisu Youth have beds available.
For families, Saint Paul’s Church is opening its doors for 40 people.
City Rescue Mission said it anticipates more families than usual.
“When they come here, typically, if it’s going to be under 32 degrees during the day, they’re allowed to stay, and we feed them three meals a day,” Skyler Parker, vice president of client services for City Rescue Mission, said.
Shelters across the OKC metro could use donations to help keep people fed and warm in the bitter cold that is to come.
“If people in the community are wanting to help, taking snacks, making donations to those organizations providing winter shelter is a desperate need,” Caves said.
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City Rescue Mission also said practical items are among donation needs.
“Hygiene products. Things like that. We like to give people hygiene products, allow them to shower. So, any type of those practical needs: socks, gloves, things will help keep them warm,” Parker said.
A full list of warming shelters and bus routes to get there can be found here.
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With bitter cold temperatures on the way, Oklahoma City is heightening its emergency response to make sure no one is without a warm place to sleep.
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Oklahoma doctor warns that exposure to frigid temperatures can cause problems
Oklahoma doctor warns that exposure to frigid temperatures can cause problems
There are easy ways to feel better, and many of them come simply from changing how you think. You don’t need to recruit some life coach or take a magic pill. Sometimes, you just need to tweak things.
If you are in a rut, and feeling down, I’ll challenge you to do something difficult, that will make you feel better in three minutes or less. Guaranteed.
Take a frigid shower, as cold as you can take it. Or you can use a pool, lake, any water that’s cold. Get all the way in to your neck. Cold water exposure is one of the very few crash-free sources of dopamine. And not only that, the dopamine boost lasts for hours after you do it. One study proved that people had more positive emotions and less negative dispositions after repeated cold water exposure. I used to do this every morning and I felt amazing from it.
The proof that it’s a valid source of feeling better is the pain that it involves. Inching your way in or diving in, are both miserable experiences. But that misery translates to such a better feeling on the other side. Nothing is free in life.
Today, 58% of workers live paycheck to paycheck. Yet, if you looked at social media, you’d never know that.
I worked with a “social media influencer” at my last job. She was an accountant by day, and we spent most of our days in cubicles. Her social media channel was all bikini pictures at beaches, and seemed to imply she was always on a trip — yet I could see her a few cubes over in most waking hours.
And so what? It’s fine if she does her thing and has a little side hustle. She was very attractive. She goes on a yearly vacation to some island, takes thousands of pictures all over the island in different swimsuits, and then uses those for her profile.
But a casual observer might assume she isn’t working and going through the grind of everyday life like us.
This is partly why I stopped using Instagram. These types of accounts kept getting rammed into my feed. And perhaps it was my own fault for clicking on bikini pictures. The tail waggeth the man. Everyone is traveling, trying amazing food, lounging at luxury resorts, and wearing fancy outfits. You’d think this planet was full of multi-millionaires with endless PTO.
Of the many things that aren’t a valid measure of our own self-worth, few are more invalid than social media. Don’t lay on your couch scrolling through feeds that make your life feel boring.
So many of the problems people encounter are solely because of the things they think. It is internal — or as it’s medically labeled, negative self-talk.
For example, many of us have an inner bully. He likes to bring up negative events from the past: things you wish you hadn’t said, embarrassing moments, big personal failures. He tells you that you’re a failure and no good. I’ve had so many times where I’ve spiraled out in this domino of negative memories and judgements about myself, only to then realize how bad of a mood I’d been put in.
One option is to pursue cognitive behavioral therapy (the gold standard in treating negative thinking). One thought exercise they provide is to envision those negative things being said to your child self. Then, validate and say, “Would this be a helpful thing to say to a child?”
Usually, they aren’t. And when you step outside of yourself and see these bad thoughts for what they are, you’re better able to deal with them. Realize those thoughts aren’t who you are, and that they’re intrusive. Try to shift towards more productive thinking habits. Here’s a trick for that.
The challenge is that contentment is evasive by design. For example, imagine there are two identical versions of yourself living in side-by-side realities. Person A goes out today, gets hit by a car, and is paralyzed from the waist down. Person B goes out and wins the lottery.
If you fast forward only a year or two, you will find those people converging at roughly the same levels of happiness. You can thank the hedonic treadmill for that. It states that despite huge changes to your life, you tend to return to a similar point of satisfaction. TV Shows like The Lottery Ruined My Life, are not without merit.
I’m sure many of you, like me, have had periods of being terribly broke. You only had $40 bucks to get you through the next few days. You may have fought with your partner about your career and every related issue that spawned outward from those financial woes.
That “you” would likely envy the more stable position many of you are in now. And yet here many of you are, with more financial security, more maturity, still feeling roughly the same as you did before. Humans are designed to prepare for threats, not indulge in luxury, hence our acclimation, and people lying around in mansions, bored to oblivion.
Hedonic adaptation is a double-edged sword. Over time, it tends to make us happier when we are unhappy, but unhappier when we are happy.
You can use this to your advantage: lean into the power of time going by when dealing with hardship, and practice gratitude when things are great but don’t feel that way.
Research shows that downward comparisons can enhance self-esteem and heighten optimism. Downward comparison isn’t about diminishing the status of the less fortunate, quite the opposite. It’s an empathetic recognition that, with a few small turns, you could have easily been in their situation.
Just as with cold showers, there’s never been a time when I worked out hard and left feeling worse.
Exertion neutralizes negative states of mind and force you to feel better—even if you subconsciously don’t want to. Exercose is proven to reduce stress and release endorphins, especially if you get your heart rate up to a point where you’re breathing hard.
I try to be self-aware and recognize when I’m in a bad mood, perhaps because of something that happened, or because of the aforementioned negative thinking. Then, I’ll force myself to go on a brisk walk or to the gym. It also helps me get my mind off of things, and reset my mood. Try to practice seeing yourself from the outside and be aware of your thinking and patterns. Then, do something to interrupt them when needed.
Don’t let bad food be your go to. That just makes a bad problem worse in the long run.
When I was going through a difficult period of my life, I finally gave in at a friend’s behest and saw a therapist. We met and I described feeling downtrodden. I’d gone through a terrible breakup and lost a job all in a short period of time. I wanted to make things better and the therapist surprised me with his first comment.
“So, tell me why you should be happy at this moment?”
Not knowing what to say, I said, “I suppose I’d rather be happy than sad.”
He went on to explain that sadness and grief are appropriate responses. It is not realistic to expect to always be happy at every given moment, to always have tons of energy. It also isn’t healthy as an expectation.
He added that contentment is a more achievable long-term goal, but this can be achieved by accepting emotions and feelings for what they are: central to the human experience.
It was my, “ah ha” moment. And that one conversation, completely changed how I view difficult periods. You learn to bake in the cost of these dips, to account for and better manage them.
In short, stop beating yourself up for not feeling super happy all the time. But if you are, use the above strategies, and you’ll start feeling better sooner than later.
