Art, Quarantine, & The Isolation Journals
“It is okay if you are not okay right now.
If you are tired, be tired.
If you are not up for creating, savor your rest and give it a go tomorrow.”
My feeling about the past six weeks in isolation, like many things in life, is best summarized on Twitter. This particular tweet was sarcastic, about how a wellness routine consisted of staring at a phone screen from 9am to 2am. The honesty about phone screens felt refreshing amid all the how-to manuals on home fitness, meditation app advertisements, and quotes posted about self-transformation and optimized time. I also spend far too much time on my phone.
That being said about phone time, in late March I discovered The Isolation Journals on Instagram. I clicked on the hashtag – #IsolationJournals – to discover the diversity of contributors: fiction writers, poets, public speakers, and musicians. Suleika Jaouad’s project (one journal prompt a day for the month of April) has transformed my experience in quarantine. I’ve responded each day, sometimes with a drawing (of questionable quality), a poem, or maybe a string of random words.
Diagnosed with leukemia at twenty-two years old, Jaouad is familiar with quarantine and restricted movement. Her treatment and recovery required her to spend weeks inside her room, unable to leave; as an antidote, she and her family agreed to do one creative act a day, for one hundred days. Their creativity kept Jaouad and her family sane and grounded.
She started The Isolation Journals to mirror this practice on a larger scale. You name the creative profession and Jaouad has a friend who’s written a thoughtful prompt, from musician Maggie Rogers to author Elizabeth Gilbert.
Every morning an email from Jaouad appears in my inbox. I write my daily journal responses in a small notebook; although technology unites us, writing with pen and paper lets me take a small break from the news, phone screens, and Zoom. Everything that’s going on simply isn’t going on anymore when I answer the prompt each day. In a reality that’s full of expectations for productivity, the simple task of completing a few sentences or small drawing takes some weight off my shoulders. I accomplish something for myself.
Jaouad verbalizes what we need to hear: it’s okay if we aren’t feeling okay. We all need to take a deep breath and allow ourselves to feel. There is no right or wrong way to react emotionally to a global pandemic. We have days when we go on a run, wash out the dog’s water bowl, and send that response to the email flagged back in March. And then days when we don’t want to do anything except stay in bed. Those are okay too.
The freedom to center my attention on a blank sheet of paper and write whatever comes to mind is healing. There is no right or wrong way to answer a journal prompt. The Isolation Journals give me space to reflect on what has hurt me, and articulate what makes me happy – opportunities to reconnect with myself.
I agree with Twitter. Yesterday, I spent five hours on my phone. The screen time app gave me a notification, and I felt guilty. Yes, tomorrow I’ll spend time away from my phone. But I’ll take it easy on myself. Jaouad’s project reminds me that coronavirus is not a moment to pretend; there exists no productivity race, no competition, no prewritten expectations. Now is not a time to add more pressure to ourselves, it’s a time to breathe.
For me, the most unsettling part of quarantine is the inability to plan for the future. I don’t know whether I’ll return to college in the fall, or when I’ll see my friends again. I cannot structure my awareness of time around any anticipated event or date. Journaling every day shifts my outward perception of time to the internal. It allows me to move through time at my own pace and experience myself freely, without boundaries.
Thank you Suleika Jaouad, for creating a project that connects us to artists, and through them, the art in ourselves.
Amelia Browne is a sophomore student-athlete at Yale University studying English and Creative Writing.