"The difference between despair and hope is just another way of telling stories from the same facts." ~ Alain de Botton
When I was told that the man I loved had an incurable disease, I instinctively reached for my diary. When I was asked to vacate my house in front of a Category 5 cyclone three weeks after his funeral, the first thing I threw into my car was a large box with my diaries.
That was almost a decade ago.
When I was standing in front of the empty shelves in my local supermarket last month, I was surprised to get back in the grip of the fear and panic I had during the crisis that I faced almost a decade ago. So I did the most logical thing. I took a deep breath, found the stationary aisle – which fortunately was still full – and bought a large new notebook.
When the world prepared to be blocked the next day, I missed the opportunity to return to my partner and home in Vietnam.
Depression and anxiety immediately came to visit and threatened to transform my self-isolation into another painful chapter in my life. But I know that I'm more resilient than I think, and I immediately turned to my number one coping strategy. I opened my new notebook and started writing my Covid 19 diary.
This is a challenging time for all of us and we are all affected by this global pandemic in different ways. I don't know how my partner and I will face the challenge of having to keep our relationship across borders and zoom and messenger without being sure when we'll see each other again.
But I know that the letter will be there for me as it was in every crisis that I went through. Regular journaling has trained me to be my own therapist. Writing it down is an act of self-care. It's like opening the door to my heart to see what's inside and allow myself to sit with it all.
Through grief for my husband's death and the consequences of a natural disaster, I learned that we can promote resilience by allowing ourselves to experience our good and bad feelings.
As I learned the hard way, writing strengthens resilience because it enables us to process, release, and understand challenging events and complex emotions.
Writing things down during a crisis is not only helpful to process and release our emotions, but also to document what happens during development.
This strange and unprecedented moment in time sometimes feels as if the world is writing a new chapter together. There is the official story, there is an abundance of alternative stories on the Internet, and then there are our personal stories and the way we as individuals deal with this crisis.
Our memories will fade – although we will probably always remember that toilet paper was the first thing that ran out during a pandemic – but by keeping a diary and writing things down as they happen, we keep a record of them unique story moment.
Writing is also a way to enter the creative flow, which is a great antidote to stress and anxiety. As we delve into the process of writing, we step out of the chaos and sadness around us for a moment into a safe zone of calm and flow.
For many of us, self-isolation brings loneliness. Writing can be a great companion in times of loneliness. My diary was always my best friend in difficult times. Writing can also be a safe retreat for those of us who are infected with cabin fever because members of a household suddenly have to live close to each other around the clock.
Conflicts and irritations can easily occur in narrow living environments. I consider my diary my sacred place where I can say things that I don't dare to speak out loud, where I can vent, rage and think, and most of all, where I enter into a dialogue with myself.
Here are some suggestions for starting your own Covid 19 journal:
1. Write how you are feeling.
Allow yourself to express feelings that you could hold back to protect others or because you are ashamed.
Write what feels particularly difficult about this crisis. Start with brainstorming words that describe your current emotional state. Imagine taking stock of the feelings in your heart. You may even find that you feel stronger and calmer than you thought.
2. Write about a time when you have overcome a crisis.
When you remember a time when you were resilient and went through a difficult emotional turning point, you can believe in your own strength.
Remember a significant difficult emotional experience. Make sure that there is something in the past that you can safely write about.
Start writing about the first person experience. Bring the experience to life by providing specific sensory details, i.e. H. What smells, sounds and tastes do you remember? You may want to refer to the weather or the color of the car you drove. Use word images to reconnect with the feelings you had during that time.
3. Write a diary.
Writing a diary of the current pandemic can be as easy as writing your day. You can write about the things you did and didn't do, the people you interacted with, the things you ate, the words you read, the messages you saw, the things you did to take care of yourself or the way you allowed the news to affect your anxiety …
Write about anything you want to record about this day. This could be a simple brain dump. Or you could focus on the bizarre things that happened today. The things you couldn't imagine a month ago – things like virtual sundowner drinks or virtual cups of tea with Zoom with your best friends.
When you write first thing in the morning, you can write about your dreams, the quality of your sleep, or the day before.
Be sure to include sensory details to bring your world to life, ie write about the flowers that are blooming, the smells during your daily walk, the sounds you can hear through the thin walls of your apartment, etc .
You never know that your Covid 19 diary can be the basis for a memory or something you can leave behind for your grandchildren.
4. Write to exercise self-compassion.
In times of crisis, when we experience suffering, fear or unrest, it is important to protect our hearts. Self-compassion can help us feel less vulnerable and disconnected during this period of self-isolation. It's also a great way to silence the voice of the inner critic who will quickly tell you that you are bad at home in school or that you are a bad partner.
Think of self-compassion as a warm hug. Or like the expert Dr. Kristin Neff says that you speak to yourself with the same care and kindness that you would use to a good friend.
For ten to fifteen minutes, write what you need from yourself to feel less vulnerable, less moody, less anxious … or whatever you are feeling. Another great way to use writing as a self-compassion practice is to write a letter from a good friend's perspective to reassure you that whatever happens will be loved and cared for.
5. Write a gratitude journal.
Gratitude is a secret superpower that helps build resilience and happiness. Too often we focus on what we lack – and at the moment we are missing many things that we recently took for granted. Gratitude is a view of what is plentiful and good in our lives despite the current crisis.
Writing a gratitude journal can be as simple as listing five things you are thankful for at the end of each day: your warm bed at night, access to drinking water, accommodation, etc.
Try to be more precise than just saying, "I am thankful for my bed." Tell your diary why you are thankful to have a bed, why you are thankful for the job that sometimes overwhelms you, or for the children that drive you crazy during this pandemic.
A good way to start a daily writing practice is to do a short meditation to calm your mind and get into silence. Then set your phone's timer to ten to fifteen minutes, just write without stopping to think or edit, and trust the pen to point the way.
I have had a diary since I was 11, which makes me an experienced diary writer, but during the current global crisis I often feel unfocused and unmotivated.
I tell myself that's okay, it's part of the process of adapting to our new normal. But I always try to catch my new normal, even if I only write a short list of things that I noticed on a certain day. It's a way to keep in touch with my inner voice and write this new chapter page by page and breath.
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