The New Normal w/ Covid19
"Everything is temporary", said my strategist friend Sydney who I interviewed for my podcast last year in May. I just finished editing the latest episode and wrote those words down on a piece of paper. I stuck it onto the wall above my desk. It carries a similar meaning to the sentence "This too shall pass," which I had posted last week on IG. A reminder to breathe in and to breathe out. To stay present despite. To choose hope after all. It is week 3 or 4 in quarantine for me since I decided pretty early on to start with the lockdown, cancelling outings with friends early in March. Just now, I stepped outside with my laptop, onto my balcony to have a change of view. Feeling grateful that I have this attached to my room. Today, I feel mostly okay. I had a frustrating morning though, helping out my dad figure a few things out and getting through several phone calls with him, the job center, the telecommunications company. I am still learning, I tell myself. To be patient and to better understand. To take time. Not only is the language barrier between my parents and I a hinderance, but also the inter-generational trauma as well as the deeply internalised communication patterns frustrating to me. It takes the extra effort on my part to try to improve things. To truly build a compassionate and kind relationship to my folks.
And then, there is all the grief, the loss, the despair, the helplessness that we're feeling on a global scale. Daily. Having to cope with heightened anxiety over the last month, I am trying to stay up, trying to move on, trying to keep on keeping on. If you haven't found suitable ways of coping yet, I am sharing some of mine here:
Build a structure for yourself: while we cannot control the outside circumstances of the corona virus, we can control how we manage our daily lives. As a grad student, I got used to working from home again over this last year and it's been beneficial to keep some sort of schedule e.g. starting the day with a run, a meditation or a journal entry, having lunch at the same time every day, and keeping social activities (such as video calls and cooking with the housemates) to the evening.
Stay informed but limit your news intake: for someone who wasn't watching / consuming the news daily, I was over-consuming, trying to read scientific reports, looking at graphs and making up my decisions (I mean, up until recently, I was supposed to leave the country and spend my days in Ha Noi). It was a lot and in hindsight, not really helpful. I was stressed and worried the whole time. Now, I try to watch the daily news of 15 minutes every evening and only check the papers online once a day on top of it. Staying informed without getting overwhelmed by them.
Add extra time for self care + family / friends / community check ins + continue to communicate: a reminder I need to hear more often is that it is totally okay to not feel okay, to not have my shit together, to be able to feel all the feelings. Instead of holding the emotions in, let them go and be angry, scared and worried. Thus, each day, add extra time to your schedule for your mental health. While joy and grief are going hand in hand right now, it is more than valid to stop and acknowledge them. And especially when you live alone, please continue to communicate and reach out to your peers and communities. It is easy to isolate now, but know that we're all in this together, and that there is an opportunity to get through this Marathon of Covid19 as a stronger community.
Turn your energy inwards: I've been joking that my crutch life over the winter prepared me well for this period. That I was forced to learn to sit still. Thus, while we're all staying home, socially distancing and slowing down to not exhaust our health care systems, you can use this time to start journaling, to start meditating or to start gardening! Spending time alone the past years has actually been a real pleasure and the personal growth experienced has been tremendous. I also love these questions posed by artist Yumi Sakugawa: "Who do you want to become during a global pandemic?", and "Who do you want to unbecome during a global pandemic?"
Exercise and eat well: of course as best as you can, try to continue boosting your immune system because mental exhaustion turning into physical exhaustion is real. With so much time spent at home working and reading, and when running is not accessible each and every day, I try to get up and stretch for a couple minutes in between. Practicing my sun salutations or well... push ups ;) and speaking of food, I've been loving the time in the kitchen, experimenting and trying out new recipes. More to that down below!