I’m not feeling as awkward as I was when I wrote the last post. Sometimes I feel like my brain is spinning out of control telling me these mean things that seem very real at the time. But time helps. I shut off my phone, hung out with my awesome husband and felt a little better.
I feel even better today after having chatted with my family on Zoom. Why is it so hard to remember that things will be okay in those moments of such harsh criticism? I listen to a podcast called My Favorite Murder which sounds like an awful thing to listen to, but it’s really great. Basically, they talk about true crime and deal with it like you have to deal with hard things sometimes…humor. They make fun of the murderer though and not the victim.
MFM also talks a lot about self-care and mental health. One thing they mentioned about stress is that stress was something that kept us alive in a time when we were running away from dangerous animals. Our current “dangerous animals” are other things like money problems, shitty people, and…maybe…the patriarchy? (edit to add: obviously also COVid19)
So this stress response can be helpful at times, but other times it’s like we have to remind our brains that this one mean thing that a person said or a weird look that we were given won’t actually kill us.
It’s like we have to keep telling ourselves that we aren’t actually going to die.
So if you’re a writer out there or just an anxious socializer, just remember–you will get past this feeling of doom. You won’t keel over. Hopefully.
I wonder if I can actually incorporate this into my story, or if I just needed to vent before writing? Like a little warm-up write. Let’s see!
Edit to add: this is not referring to the awfulness surrounding the pandemic.
Okay now I’m realizing this is very insensitive to the current pandemic. This was only in regards to having social anxiety and general life stress. Sometimes when I write, I’m thinking that people might be reading this years from now. I really am the worst.
Wear a mask, friends. Be safe.
K I’m going to go write other things now– bye.
