Writing Is the Best Thing That Happened to Me in 2020
By: Khyati Jain
Tags: Family, Self, Life, Relationships, Writing

Writing Is the Best Thing That Happened to Me in 2020

Finding my blessing in disguise!

Photo by Andrea Piacquadio from Pexels

2020 has been a big-rollercoaster, we lived through things that no one anticipated(except for Bill Gates of course).

This was a difficult year for everyone, so many people lost their loved ones. Almost 80 million people suffered from the life-threatening virus.

Coping from these tough times is a difficult yet essential task, writing has helped me to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Writing Helped Me Process Grief

This year taught me many things, I suffered the worst loss of my life. I lost my grandma on September 8th. We took all the precautions to keep her protected from this virus, but our efforts were in vain.

She was a tough old bird, nothing ever scared her. She was a fighter and the commander in chief of the house. She was an adorable goofball, with a ton of hilarious stories, her stories taught us about life. Losing her is the worst thing that happened to my family this year.

Writing helped me process this loss and despair. I am an introvert I am not always comfortable sharing my feelings, most of the time I don't even know how to. Writing stories about her gave me peace and sharing them with you all gave me hope that she will live in my heart forever.

Writing Strengthened My Recovery From Covid

Just before my grandma died, my whole family tested positive for covid. It was a terrifying experience as my aunt is diabetic and we were all worried about her health the most. Everyone except her had mild fever and fatigue. We were the lucky ones as the virus didn’t affect us severely.

This virus has taken more than 1 million lives. It was a scary experience to see your loved ones suffering from an illness in mourning. Writing helped me process the pain and the illness. I was sad, depressed, and ill all at the same time.

Writing gave me hope, it encouraged me to help people who were also going through the same thing. Writing whilst I was sick made me forget about my pains and aches. It helped me divert my mind from sadness and illness.

Writing Rebooted my Fitness

I am a big fitness freak, but after getting covid, I lost all my motivation and energy. Post covid recovery kicked my a**. It was difficult to do even a quarter of my regular workout. All my gains disappeared, I was so lethargic and unmotivated that I even stopped trying. All I was doing in the name of fitness was evening walks.

Writing about my fitness journey and yoga motivated me to get back in shape(I had legit abs before this lockdown). I wanted my strength and flexibility back. I wanted to do a handstand again. Writing about all the things that I love in fitness made me miss my active and healthy old self. So I finally decided to get back in the game.

Now I do 1-hour morning yoga routine and 10 minutes jump rope routine in the evening. It will take time to get to my old level, but I am happy that I finally started. Writing made that happened.

Writing Lead Me Back To Books

I am a self-attested nerd, a lover of books. But a few years back I made the mistake of choosing binging over reading. I used to watch series back-to-back with no worry about my future. I procrastinated my studies to watch television. It was a shameful act to cover my low self-esteem.

This year I finally got back in habit of reading regularly, I read more and more articles by the top writers to figure out the best way to write. I studied their work for hours on end to learn something that I can apply to my own writing to get better. Saturday is my reading day, I easily read for 4–5 hours, trying to learn some tricks of this trade. Now, I watch less than 1 hour of television on most days.

On writing well by William Zinsser is a book that helped me improve my writing rapidly in a short amount of time. It is a must-read.

Writing Helped Me In Becoming More Grateful

In these difficult circumstances, it was hard to be grateful for the blessings and joys of life. Grief and sickness made us all miserable and sorrowful.

It is easy to be grateful when everything is in your favor but expressing gratitude in the thought times is a real challenge.

Writing a gratitude journal helped me in being grateful for the little things that helped me cope with these tough times.