I’ve been hearing this week that it can be really challenging to spend more time at home for any number of reasons, but particularly that it is more challenging to spend more time with your own thoughts. You may be balancing the responsibilities of work and home with the added element of not being able to access some of your go-to coping strategies. The idea of self-compassion and remaining present with yourself might sound great but feel out of reach or even annoying. I hope to be able to identify a few common myths about self-compassion and normalize some of the thinking traps that can feel a bit sticky or murky. 

This week, the topic is a brief breakdown of why myself and so many other therapists so often and passionately recommend journaling and writing exercises. I apologize for missing last week’s newsletter. I was not able to pull together the content on the topic of writing in the way that I had hoped. How ironic! You might be someone who openly embraces this part of your process, and most likely started journaling long before a mental health professional suggested it. Or, maybe you’re a little ambivalent, unsure of why it’s so popular, but curious. For others, writing is really not your thing and that’s of course okay too. There are so many wonderful mediums of self expression, and writing is only one option. I choose to maintain a journaling practice for myself and recommend it so highly because it’s economically accessible, adaptable to not only different people but also different moods and schedules, and is a tool for expression that also provides physiological benefits. 

The topic of this week’s post is how to discern between feeling a sense of agency versus having a sense of control, with a focus on believing that you are doing enough! I have heard from many of you this past week that so much about life feels out of control right now -- and you are absolutely right. I have heard many of you say you wish you could do more, and I hear you. I’m right there with you in this uncertainty. We cannot control the outcomes of how this global pandemic impacts others or ourselves. We cannot control how we react emotionally. However, we absolutely can work to feel a sense of agency in our daily choices and how we choose to cope with the strong emotions that may be evoked during this time. 

To highlight the essence of this topic, I’m first turning to the film Eat Pray Love. If you’ve been anywhere near social media, you know there are plenty of memes going around about COVID-19, working from home (#WFH), and watching lots of tv and movies. I’m a huge fan of referencing tv and movies in therapy, because oftentimes these fictional narratives allow us a chance to see relationships, emotions, and conflict play out in ways that relate to exactly what we might be talking about that day. Check out this clip (really just the first 30 seconds) and keep reading to unpack my thoughts! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Ojsvc_KsDY