How can we cope with anxiety, overwhelm & make sense of the world?

I was ten when it happened — when my father died — and my mother had a breakdown leaving me to assume the role of the parent in our house.
Writing, mostly in journals, was how I made sense of the world, and desperately captured and clung onto memories of my father — I was terrified of forgetting him. As home became more violent and volatile throughout my teenage years, the world I created with my words, writing and journals became my safe place — a sanctuary — for me to escape to.

I woke up this morning, curious at what today would bring after barely a wink of sleep, tossing and turning with pain and nightmares throughout the night. Then I remembered I can always go to my safe place and lose myself in words if things started to feel too rough and overwhelming.

No matter what situation we find ourselves in — a violent home, loved ones with mental instability, ill-health, pain, loss, suffering, grief, overwhelm, anxiety or being impacted by the world’s chaos — one place we can turn to is to a piece of paper and a pen. Find a quiet corner somewhere — even better if you have a place which is yours alone — and write, without overthinking it. This is one easy method we can use to cope.

It may not change our lives, nor immediately take our pain away, and it is unlikely to change our circumstances directly.
This is a way to settle our nerves, relieve anxiety and overwhelm, recentre ourselves, and to process and make sense of our world.

This is a way for our brains to see things from a new perspective, and look for what’s is possible — anything we can do to move forward.

We only ever have the present moment, nothing is promised to us, and nothing will ever be as it was, so our only option is to keep moving forward. We have the opportunity to do this every day, and this is one way we can get started, right now.