Becoming Mrs. Lewis Virtual Book Tour Series Day Five
Featured Author Guest—Rachel McMillan
Newsletter March 26, 2020—Day Five #AloneTogether
Dear Reader,
It is pub week for the EXPANDED edition of BECOMING MRS LEWIS and instead of being with you out there in the world, I am here with you in the world. We will celebrate this week in very different ways. You can go here to see the other Virtual Book Tour “events’ this week.
Coming up today Facebook: Thurs, March 26th
1 pm EST Katz Festival of Books
“How do we live our lives at home that we once lived out in the world?” Today is DAY FIVE of our author experts. I have gathered a cadre of author pals who are also experts in other fields. I want to introduce you to Author Rachel McMillan. She will be providing us with some helpful tips for being your own best company —even if you are isolated with others. I will let her take it from here (see below).
How To Be Your Best Own Company
Tips for being your own best company —even if you are isolated with others.
As someone who has an anxiety and panic disorder but is also used to being alone as a work from home single writer, I sometimes feel I have been preparing my whole life for something like this. But I realize not everyone is in the same boat. Here are some tips for being your own best company—even if you are isolated with others. 1. It's okay to selfishly demand time to connect with what makes you, you: A walk, a bath, a long shower with a favourite scent, a candle and a cup of tea with a favourite mug. It's okay to be anxious: sometimes we're so worried about not focusing or not carrying on and keeping on or not performing that we don't allow ourselves the grace to recognize that what is hitting us is the biggest thing many of us will ever see in our lifetime: give yourself, your family and your friends time to adjust until you get used to a new normal. 2. Climb small mountains: Don't make a rampant to-do list right now. You might only be able to handle one email after a long tv press conference: your expectations for work now are different than they were and you need to recognize that environmental changes affect us. Break your day mountain into little steps and slowly incline until this new temporary normal is doable. 3. Get excited for normal to come back: We are going to go back to normal at some point: make a list of the things you had been putting off that you are going to place at the top of your list once the quarantine is over: a restaurant or a historical site or a hiking trail.
4. Choose a few voices including the ones in your head: It's so easy to hear so many conflicting things from different areas and cities and countries and sources and be told "Accomplish this!" or "Don't do that!" Choose a few people to follow and trust as your source so your brain doesn't get overcrowded. Remember your own voices, too. The ones that are anxious and quick to temper and easily agitated. If you have a positive thought, let it push through and focus on it. Fixate on it. 5. Breathe: Focus on a corner of the wall or a piece of furniture and deeply inhale for ten seconds. Exhale for the same. Be aware of your heart, your lungs, your diaphragm, your breath, the air around you. You're alive. We'll be fine. More Tips Tune in with Rachel Every day on her Instagram, she will be providing tips and tricks for how to stay mentally healthy solo during self-isolation: (@rachkmc) • Instagram photos and videos
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