Month: April 2025

old newspapers as calming distraction…

It might seem strange to say that exploring decades-old newspapers brings me a sense of calm, but it does. The history. The tidbits of social information. The photographs and advertisements of stores and restaurants that no longer exist.

I like it all. And it provides a way to occupy my mind and distract me from anxious thoughts – with the added benefit of learning things that can help me with my genealogical and historical explorations. The main site I use is newspapers.com because it has the papers for the locations I’m exploring. But there are other options too.

As I’ve mentioned before, genealogy is one of my hobbies (and is also something that serves as calming distraction for me) and newspapers have provided lots of information about generations of family members. There are the expected wedding announcements and obituaries, but I’ve also discovered things I knew nothing about: unexpected photos and news articles about relatives.

In addition to genealogical research, I also turn to old newspapers for help with my writing, especially when it comes to fiction. My novel, New Life in New Melody (and its earlier version, In New Harmony), takes place in 1943, and I’m currently working on a sequel set in 1944. Exploring newspapers from back then, especially the one published in my novels’ geographic location, has led to lots of helpful information and historically accurate slice-of-life tidbits for my stories.

Since not all news is pleasant or happy, I try to pay attention to my emotional and mental capacity, and I don’t tackle heavier-duty research topics on days I don’t feel up to it. But usually, looking through old papers provides me with interesting distractions that actually help me deal with anxiety. It transports me to another place, a different time, and other lives that aren’t my own.

In recent months, I’ve posted about a few different things that work for me when it comes to providing some calming distraction from life, stress, and anxiety. Exploring old newspapers might be an unexpected one – but sometimes we find help in unexpected places.

❤

tapping to calm…

Last week I had a dental appointment. It was for a routine cleaning, the type of dental appointment I’ve had regularly for decades, so you’d think I’d be okay about it after all these years.

But dental appointments, even for routine visits and cleanings, give me huge anxiety spikes.

As far back as I can remember, I’ve felt nervous about visits to dentists and doctors, but the anxiety got worse at some point during the past twenty years or so. And it seems like it just continues to get more severe as the years pass.

So the anxiety was very high before my appointment last week, but there was one thing in particular that helped bring it down.

I tapped to calm.

Tapping (also known as EFT or Emotional Freedom Technique) is something I learned a long time ago, back in 2008 when I first got involved in energy work. It involves tapping on certain points of your upper body while saying certain things about what’s going on.

It sounds woo-woo and weird. As time goes on, though, more is being understood about exactly why and how it works, and studies have shown what we who have experienced it found out firsthand: tapping can be helpful for a variety of things, including anxiety.

There are definitions, videos, articles, and books out there about tapping that can do a much better job than I can do of explaining or describing it, so I’m not even going to try doing that in this space.

But I do want to recommend my favorite tapping YouTube channel, Brad Yates – Tap with Brad.

Brad’s channel goes back well over a decade and has over 1,500 videos, most of them quite short and all of them easy to follow. When I want to tap about something going on in particular, I’ll visit his channel and input my concern (or problem or issue) into the channel’s search box, and I’ll usually find several videos to fit what I want to address. I simply follow along.

If you’ve never tapped before, it might seem strange or feel ridiculous at first. But it’s easy. It doesn’t take much time at all. And it helps.

I’d say it’s definitely worth a try.

❤

a basic writing prompt…

There are gobs of writing prompts out there.

To be honest, I don’t use writing prompts on a regular basis – and sometimes I don’t even think to turn to them. But there have been times during my writing life when prompts have been a big help. And there’s a special place in my heart for them because back in the very early 90s, when I had my first short story sale (to a children’s magazine – I was so excited to sell a story!!) that story I wrote came into being because of a writing prompt I found and followed in one of the many writing-related books I read.

Even though I’m not a big writing-prompt-user, there’s one prompt in particular that I turn to when I’m feeling blocked. It can help when I’m feeling stuck about what overall writing project to work on, and it can help when I’m feeling stuck about an individual scene.

It’s a very basic question – but it requires me to pay attention and listen to what comes to me.

The question is: What do I want to write?

It might seem like this is a useless prompt. After all, if I knew what to write, if I knew what I wanted to write, why would I even need a prompt to begin with?

But actually asking myself the question – putting it into words for myself and then paying attention to what immediately comes to my mind – can help me gain clarity and direction.

Not overthinking it. Not tensing up or putting up walls.

Just taking a breath and asking the question and then listening. Paying attention to the first answer that comes. Sometimes the first answer isn’t the answer, but often it is – or can lead to finding the ultimate answer.

This is an intuitive approach. But when I can get out of my own way, it can work.

Asking. Listening. Paying attention.

And then writing.

What do you want to write?

What do you WANT to write?

❤