Dear Javairia:

You are welcome and thank you for wishing me well. I am fine, as fine as I can be during lockdown. I was far from being a party animal before the lockdown, but I miss being around people. I do get to be around people when shopping for food, but it’s not the same.

I didn’t understand what you wrote here: “I can describe and connect, while narrating how I deal with difficult situations”- do you mean that you want to put together another art zine (a self published magazine, a collections of drawings, written work, photos and other artwork), so to express yourself in a way that is the middle ground between too heavy and too light?

“Quarantine.. I’ve been getting zero things done.. anything I enjoy or don’t, equally.. My head just overthinks when I’m awake.. overthinks everything.. Staying home is messing up my mind so much. I’ve tried .. checklists, set my own deadlines, set rewards/ punishments.. but I got nothing out of it. Can you suggest me something to not dread this stay-at-home time, not overthink and probably get something done?”-

I would say shift your goal from becoming productive during quarantine tosurviving quarantine. Take off from yourself the pressure to be productive. Make being productive an option, not a must-be. Allow yourself to relax, be it by reading a book and getting lost in someone else’s story, or doing your art for no other reason than to lose (your overthinking) in it.

I take a 5.5 km walk outside every day and it helps with distress most of the time, maybe all of the time. I don’t know if that’s an  available option for you. Indoors- hot baths melt away distress and overthinking like magic.

Back to the shifting of goal: relax into the humble goal of just surviving this pandemic, one day at a time, especially the days that don’t seem to end, in my experience. If typing away your feelings help, type them away here- and don’t worry about expressing yourself too heavily or seriously, and definitely no need to express yourself “too flowery”- you can practice that middle ground in your thread.

anita

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