Pandemic thoughts

Hello everyone!  I often feel neglectful of my blog, considering how much energy I put into my Youtube channel, so today I decided to write an entry here.  I chose a topic that, for various reasons, I’ve barely broached in video:  this pandemic.  Specifically, I’d like to explore how I’ve been trying to mine as much good as possible out of this strange and often unpleasant time.  It’s certainly thrown a monkey wrench into a lot of different areas of my life.  This has required me to work extra hard to keep my focus, to keep my spirits up, and to keep myself motivated and growing.  In that spirit, I’d like to explore some of the things I have been doing to make that possible for myself, and, just maybe, some of this will apply to others!

  1. I’ve had to work especially hard to keep a good routine.  A lot of my life’s regular, externally-defined patterns have been thrown off, so I’ve had to rely on my internal resources more than ever.  I have to make sure to keep a reasonable bedtime and to wake up at a reasonable hour every day, to eat my meals on a regular schedule, and to plan my days with some healthy structure.  I think now more than ever my life’s structure could go off the rails, and now more than ever I don’t want that to happen!  I’ve seen it happen to quite a few folks, and the results haven’t been anything I want to experience.
  2. I’ve been working hard to keep up with my internal relationship with myself.  For me this primarily involves a lot of journaling and a lot of maintaining a good, healthy, inner dialogue.  My life’s decrease in face-to-face social interactions has been painful for me, and I quickly came to realize that one way I can make up for that is to work extra hard to interact with myself: to check in with myself, to see how I’m feeling, and to help myself work through whatever I might be going through.  I don’t want to let myself fall through the cracks emotionally.  I’ve seen that happen to others, and it hasn’t been pretty.
  3. I’ve put in extra effort to keep in touch with friends on the phone.  This has been a lifeline for me.  Without that I find that the “new normal” of social isolation can have a very negative effect on me.  In this regard, I really feel for people who are more socially isolated than I am — and I know quite a few.  And most especially I feel for young children, who often are interacting with no one but their parents (and often their troubled parents) and perhaps a sibling.  I wonder how many children will come out of this pandemic emotionally stunted.  I suspect the number will be high.
  4. I make sure to exercise every day.  My method of exercise is walking.  I like to walk for at least an hour every day, and thankfully that is allowed in New York City.  I have a few places that I walk that have some trees and some semblance of nature, and I treasure this.  I even have a few special trees that I occasionally hug.  Although I know this sounds cheesy, even ridiculous, not infrequently I get a real emotional boost from hugging my favorite big, old oak tree!  Maybe it’s just my imagination, but I get a strange feeling that this tree loves me as much as I love it!
  5. I work hard on personal projects.  Although I have some work that I do for money (mostly video editing for others, and also proofreading, for which I am very grateful) I have been working on my own writing and video projects, and these have been a lifesaver for me.  I know some people who feel that this pandemic has just been a huge waste of time, and while I can understand that sentiment, I don’t want to fall into it myself.  And so I have a whole list of projects on my slate, and when I’m not working for money, I’m working on them!  These keep me going — and they brighten my day as much as anything else I can conceive.  This blog entry, for example, is one!
  6. I work hard to avoid negative things.  These include negative people (sadly, most especially my family of origin), negative things on the internet, and the wide variety of addictive substances that abound in our world.  Basically, I try to maintain a healthy, well-balanced life, because I want to come out of this pandemic as healthy as I went in, and hopefully even healthier.  For many people this is a time of increased vulnerability, and I have seen quite a few people fall into some very negative things in this past year, and I don’t want to follow in their footsteps.  So I practice self-discipline.  
  7. Finally, I make sure to have fun.  My main ways of having fun (aside from talking with friends) are cooking and eating new and tasty and healthy meals, listening to classical music, reading literature, playing guitar and singing, and browsing the internet (mostly nature shows).  This just helps me relax and, for bits and snippets here and there, just forget all the drama of the world and indulge my curiosity.

So, that’s about that!  And now it’s just a question of waiting to see what comes next, and when it comes!  Hopefully soon!

8 thoughts on “Pandemic thoughts

  1. Since the onset of Covid, I’ve sometimes reread your March 9, 2018 post, ‘The Dividing Line Between Crazy and Not Crazy’. And I think you pretty much cover the strangest and most alarming phenomena I’m witnessing – socially & politically as well as in individuals. I won’t quote any of your insights from that post; suffice to say they all apply to a range of scenarios currently unfolding on a large & small scale. A friend pointed me to your site in 2020 when I was in the process of leaving a therapist who fought hard to convince me to continue; clearly they were out of their depth & couldn’t read me, though I learned to read them, despite their withholding all personal information. At the time I found your perspective immensely helpful. And so I find myself returning to your blog at a time when a minority in my home state are locked out of society, supposedly temporarily, because, for a wide range of reasons, they’re choosing not to comply. I won’t complicate the issue by citing historical precedents for this type of political strategy, but already I’ve found myself ostracised by people who used to act like friends & now appear to be subject to intense & irrational fear. As an adult I’ve given much thought to the nature of craziness, having survived intense & prolonged psychosis during my early 20s, from which I recovered over a period of several years w/o any clinical intervention. Then I worked as a counsellor for a few years – but I’ve not yet met a therapist who’s understood what I went through. The thing is, while psychotic I felt ostracised when, in relative terms, I actually wasn’t. And lately I’m revisiting the theme, but now it’s external, not internal: a radical reversal. Anyway, amid apparent societal panic & polarisation, I’ve been searching for more or less sane perspectives on our collective situation, which is how I came to be reading your latest post. And I’m mildly surprised to find a seeming avoidance of what many see as the defining issues of this time – followed by comments from people who seem to be seeking guidance, or even just a reality check re such issues. Reading these unanswered comments, I feel moved, saddened & curious, & so I add my own to the somewhat cold trail. I resonate w/ your approach to self-care & personal growth as outlined above, & today intend to do some sketching of the beautiful flowers from my mum’s funeral; due to lockdown restrictions, she died in a nursing home (aged 99) w/o having been allowed a visit from me, her only remaining family member, for 3+ months. Blessings & thanks for the resources you offer, Daniel.

  2. It’s extremely interesting to me that the replies to Daniel’s essay about the pandemic are from people questioning what is going on, specifically if this is being honesty presented in the media . Daniel seems to sidestep these questions and I understand. There was a YouTube where he expressed doubt, although it was in a vague fashion. We all need to make money to put food on the table and pay for our housing and people are too afraid to speak up because they’re afraid that the money supply will be shut off. They have every right to feel this way and it’s unfortunate. We live in a culture that punitively judges people who do not conform to the accepted way of thinking. My own belief is that we are headed towards a scenario of a form of totalitarian control through getting people to accept this corporate injection and resulting in a form of paperwork that will accompany peoples injection status. I believe that our bodies are our sovereign realm and nobody should be forced to participate in an experimental drug trial. Soon they will grant this injection FDA approval because- well, why not? Who is allowed to question their motives or methods? They have the power at thIs time because people are asleep at the wheel, hypnotized by fear. Like Daniel, travel was a very important part of my life. However I will not accept this injection as a pre-condition of my freedom to travel . If this is what is required then walking around my neighborhood will have to suffice.This is the traumatization of an entire planets population. Now they are trying to distract people with stories about UFOs. Are you actually kidding me? I hope that more people will speak out including people of influence like Daniel. I’m leaving a donation as a person who would never judge Daniel for speaking the truth. We are out here. And we need to support each other.

  3. Hi Daniel. I wonder: do you really believe there’s a dangerous virus spreading? Do you actually think we have a pandemic?

    • Thank you so much for your check in. I, too, am dealing with keeping positive, having complex ptsd, brain dysregulation seems to be even more challenging lately in my own orb of life. Dealing with some major debilitating ear pain that was a common theme of neglect as a child. All this while I am trying to secure my own place to live with deadlines looming. Sounds ironic?

  4. Good to read from you. Excellent points to live through the pandemic. Just a few simple questions. Who do you think is behind it? If you have an answer, what kind of people are they? Are they normal people? Do you believe in the virus? Will you take the vaccination? What is your advice to parents with children? If you had children what would you do about their schooling and the protocols imposed on them?

  5. As always, excellent food for thought. I was lucky enough to touch base with you early in the course of this pandemic and thanks to your suggestion, I completed the first draft of my memoir. Pandemic repercussions (hubby’s illness) are my main focus now but, I will polish it and finish as soon as I am able. Before my husband’s illness, I was loving the slow down caused by this pandemic. Now, the fear of my husband dying prevents me from even breathing. I really can’t believe that this is our reality.

    • I am in Italy and it is actually catastrophic more than people realise. From my understanding there is no way out until a critical mass of people become aware of the puppeteers behind it (The global èlite and bankers). They have planned this for ions of years.

  6. Hello, you one time talked about Sweden. I watch Swedish Scandinavian and Nordic countries videos because they are the happiest countries in the world. I watch any video which talking about them. It makes me feel good and happy. Thanks for that. I have bipolar disorder, I watched a tedex video about it. It showed me to make a a balance between excitement and sadness, by staying in the middle. This the name of the video ( finding balance in bipolar)

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