Writing Your COVID Story

How are you adjusting to the many changes of Covid, especially with school starting up again? Does it feel like your Covid story is almost over, still in the middle or are you just beginning a new "life after Covid" story. One of the skills that emotional athletes use to stay resilient is to keep writing their stories as they go. What does it mean to “keep writing your story”?

First, tell your story to others. The process of putting words to our stories through speaking or writing helps us to clarify for ourselves what happened, how we feel about it and how the story has impacted us. When we do that with witnesses who listen to us, it makes the story seem more real and we can feel validated. 

Second, choose what you focus on. When you speak a story, you are forced to choose which parts to tell or not tell. Do you ignore the hard parts, denying your pain and losing the opportunity to heal and connect with others in humble humanity? Do you focus only on the hard parts, getting stuck in the misery? Can you see the good which comes out of the conflict in your story? Emotional athletes work hard to notice all relevant truths in their stories, the good and the bad. This process is called “reframing” a situation. When we crop a picture to only one particular part, we can lose sight of the actual image. The bigger our frame, the more accurately we see the picture. 

Third, keep rewriting your endings. If we have good listeners who don’t interrupt us, we have the opportunity to “write” a conclusion to our story. But even without good listeners, we need to keep revisiting our stories so that we can conclude them from the perspective of who we are today. This is the part that increases our resilience. Without endings, we are left with cliffhanger anxiety. When we can write an ending with our potential victory over the conflict, we redefine ourselves as growing wiser, stronger or better. For Christians, all of our stories have happy endings… eventually (Romans 8:28). We cannot be what we cannot see, so it is important to envision our victories and God’s good work in our lives. (Philippians 1:6) 

So what is your Covid story today? What are your conclusions? If you’re not sure, try some of these starters:

  • But our family will be stronger because…

  • But I trust God to…

  • But I am grateful for Covid because….

  • But I have adjusted well by…

  • But I am proud of myself for…

We took the time to listen to some of the COVID stories in our community and we wanted to share these unique stories with you.

What's Your COVID Story?

  • AJ Dunlap, Creative & Marketing Coordinator at Black Girl Sunscreen

  • Mario de Armas, RHMC, Teacher at Belen Preparatory School and Wellspring Therapist

  • Rachel Barrios, Senior at Westminster Christian School

  • Lindsey Steffen, LMHC, Wellspring Therapist

Jessica Spivey