“I can’t sleep. When I close my eyes, it’s like I’m back in that house. I can’t go back.”

“I can’t breathe. I just had a flashback. He was there, I saw him.”

“The holidays are hard. It just brings me back to those same feelings and hurt I went through 10 years ago.”

One of the greatest tools for battling anxiety and depression that can be brought on by quarantine turns out to be curiosity and engaging in what the researchers referred to as “flow.” These are activities that are completely absorbing such as running, painting, writing, or gardening.

And you know what? That’s okay. It’s no fault to have simply not lived long enough. I wish we talked about this more. I wish we acknowledged that there is no 5-step manual that can ever match or make up for actual living.

She listened, and she helped. I want to share some of the tools she gave me to help with my anxiety in hopes that someone else may benefit from some of the techniques she suggested.

Have you ever found yourself daydreaming not about something that might happen in the future but about something that already did in the past?