Unearthed

I write a lot about being by yourself, being with your mind, and giving yourself the simple pleasure of hearing yourself think. But I never thought it would be something that was forced on people.

If your quarantine has been anything like mine, you have had more alone time than the average human needs. You have had thoughts and experiences that were buried so deep be unearthed since March. Sometimes, it’s questions about where your life is heading and what you’re going to do with it, it’s a childhood memory you never remembered before or dealing with grief in all its ways etc.

And if you are like most of the population during a pandemic, you distracted yourself. You convinced yourself that it was not necessary or told yourself you do not have the space to deal with it. Which can all be true. So you went from houseparty to twitter to card games to drinking games to YouTube to Netflix to Hulu to emotional eating to sleeping it away to only wake up the next day and start that cycle all over again. But who can blame you. It’s hard and It’s a lot to ask of a person...to ask yourself.

It started with adjusting our lives because of a deadly virus and later, fighting for yet another merciless killing of a black body. People have mourned and fought so much during this time. It’s hard. It’s new. It’s trying.

Finding a new normal surrounding the panic, loss, and readjustment. Finding little ways to stay connected with people, let them know you love them and keep yourself afloat. Trying not to think so much about how lonely it is to not be with family or friends during this time. Cherishing the memories and making promises to yourself that once it’s all over, you’re going to travel the world. To build a life so large it doesn’t feel like you’ve missed out on anything.

While you do all of this, I ask you to let yourself rest. To ask yourself how you’re feeling about the news you’re receiving today, to check if you’ve had a meal, if you’ve stepped outside for a little bit, and to reach out to someone if you need to talk about the frustration of all of this. Pockets of intentional happiness are necessary.

We’ve all had to adjust in more ways than one during the last 5 months; so let yourself notice that.

They say “be kind. You don’t know what anyone is going through.” But don’t forget to extend that courtesy to yourself.