My family and I are living in Hong Kong at the moment. We arrived just as the protests ramped up and now we never know when the next bout of unrest or violence will break out. I don’t want to get into the politics of the protests or why they’re happening because you can read up on that if you’re interested - instead I wanted to do a blog about ways we have found to get through a period of civil unrest, in case it helps other people in similar situations, but also because I think the tips I have probably apply to any crisis situation anyone might face.
I have five top tips to share with you for coping with stressful situations like the one in Hong Kong.
We talk about the situation here all the time, as a family and with friends here, and also with friends and family back home. It really helps to talk about what’s going on and how it’s affecting us. Sometimes here people treat this all as normal, as it’s been going on for six months. It’s really not normal to have people fighting each other with petrol bombs and tear gas and I hope I never find that normal. This should be a stressful situation, right? If it’s not, I’ll know I’ve numbed out.
I don’t sleep well here, sometimes because of what’s going on outside at night, but I do find I need more sleep. Sleep helps us to recover from stress and to process all that’s going on. Catching up on sleep is so important, whether that’s going to bed earlier when things are quiet or taking naps.
So Hong Kong might not be safe right now but we are safe in our apartment, and we are safe when we venture out of the city a bit. Spending time in the safe places and out of the chaos is helpful. We stick to those safe places a lot.
It may not be possible to physically get away from the place where the stress is, but escape via books, comedy shows, films etc is always possible. Anything that takes you away and/or makes you laugh is great - use it. Having a little mental break from reality is necessary for us right now. Equally, hearing news from home is welcome. Finding out what’s going on with other people takes the focus off what’s going on here.
Perspective comes in two parts for me. Firstly, remembering that it could be worse. We’re all healthy and we’re staying safe. Those are huge blessings. Secondly, this is temporary. I find that of limited helpfulness because time is so subjective, and a week of stress is so much less temporary than a month of bliss for that reason, but none the less it is true that nothing is permanent and things will change.
So those are my five tips for dealing with living in a stressful place or situation. Can you relate? Do you have any more tips to share? Please feel free to leave a comment below. I’d love to hear from you.
You can view the vlog version of this post on my You Tube channel here.