Intro: Ted Kerr’s wise words inspired OHMA student Eleonora Anedda to reflect on the responsibilities of oral historians in times of crisis. Not so much on their duty towards others, but their obligations towards themselves. This piece will examine much needed self care habits that can be incorporated in our lockdown routines.

My hometown has become extremely quiet during this health crisis. My house on the other hand, has never been this lively.

Birds chirp softly. A clock starts ticking and fades into indistinct, overlapping voices speaking Italian. A TV joins the mix, then a dog barking. A woman's voice rises above the hubbub, warmly calling, "Ele! Ele! Ele! Ele!" Laughter floats through. A whistle blows, more voices laugh, and far away a bell rings.

But it’s not always like this. For dinner, we all get together and we silently watch the news to see how we’ve done that day. Then we don’t talk about it.

During his OHMA workshop, writer and artist Ted Kerr, whose work is centered around HIV/AIDS community and culture, addressed the importance of not losing the “microstories.” My own first instinct when the pandemic escalated was to call a family friend. She’s a nurse. I did it, I called her. I asked her if she wanted to be interviewed and she said no, that she still needed to process what was going on before talking about it - and I was glad. I felt relieved that she wasn’t available. It took me a while to understand why. Then I felt ashamed that I was the one who wasn’t ready to ask questions. I was one of those people who’d rather not know.

“Occhio non vede cuore non duole,” we say in Italian. “You don’t see, you don’t hurt.”

So what if knowing how important and relevant this work is turns out not to be enough? Perhaps you’re interviewing and the stories are hard to listen to. Maybe you have a personal involvement in the lives that are being disrupted - how do you cope? How do you find a balance between your responsibility as an oral historian and caring about yourself?

As medical anthropologist Dr. Kimberly Theidon states: “you will be changed by your research; that is one of the legacies.”[1] Even though we tend to privilege the feelings of the narrators over our own, for our well-being we cannot underestimate the effects of listening to pain and trauma on our own physical, and emotional health. Most people only have a few ways to deal with overwhelming emotions, such as eating, venting or avoiding them (big shout out to my family!). Such coping strategies help you feel better in the short term - they are essentials in the aftermath of the interview for example, or in general when we experience overwhelming emotions. But to be most effective they need to be paired with self care skills in order to create lasting change. Self-care means creating habits that lead to a healthy life - where both body and mind are being looked after. Being in lockdown, we might feel like our self-care options have been drastically reduced, which is not entirely true.

For those of you who might be seeking to build your self-care strategies in this time, I have compiled tips for self-care from several advocates (full list below) and have adjusted them to our current needs.

What To Do

Identify a “safe space” you can go to after your interviews. Being at home this means it has to be a space in your building, but you can be creative and personalize it - you can maybe hang up some pictures or inspiring quotes.
Reach out to someone who gets you and your work - you know who that person is. Also, if you’re interviewing frequently, consider alternating who you reach out to so no one friend gets overwhelmed.
Establish boundaries. Make sure you don’t burn out, it’s okay to say no to doing an interview and take time for yourself.
Write down how you’re feeling - maybe in your field notes or in your journal. Keeping an eye on your notes will also make it easier to recognise patterns or warning signs before things get ugly.
Hug a living being. Roommates? Dogs? A plant? I know I said living being but a stuffed toy can help as well.
If you're feeling uneffective or you keep procrastinating, it’s a sign you’ve reached your limit - allow yourself to recharge your batteries and then create a routine. Find a good luminous desk, make a timetable, start with a small task and you’ll see that it wasn’t as bad as you thought it was.

The Essentials

Dr. Beth Hudnall Stamm, a self-care specialist, encourages writing these down somewhere. I’d also suggest to have them as a habit tracker, which is more likely to hold you accountable:

Sleep the amount of hours you need - not more, not less.
Eat healthy.
Drink water - if you can’t bring yourself to do it try tea or infusions. You could also try adding some slices of lemon to your water to make it flavourful.
Exercise - now that we’re always sitting down at our desks, to let go of the tension in your back, neck, and muscles try stretching before going to bed, alternatively do some light yoga.
Read, paint, take photos, cook, do gardening, dance, send memes. Keep doing what you enjoy!
Laugh.

Start taking care of yourself right now. Read this poem by Bertolt Brecht. It’s titled Pleasures - you’ll find that most of them can be enjoyed from home.

First look from morning's window

The rediscovered book

Fascinated faces

Snow, the change of the seasons

The newspaper

The dog

Dialectics

Showering, swimming

Old music

Comfortable shoes

Comprehension

New music

Writing, planting

Traveling

Singing

Being friendly

[1] Theidon, Kimberly “‘How Was Your Trip?’ Self-Care for Researchers Working and Writing on Violence,” Drugs, Security and Democracy Program Working Papers on Research Security, No. 2 (2014), 3.

How to Adult. ‘A Self-Care Action Plan’. Accessed 6 May 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w0iVTQS8ftg&list=PLV10HcLZH9q22J9QuHFmGfQ9knS34PqGm&index=2.

How to ADAH. ‘How to Self Care: The Ultimate Checklist’. Accessed 6 May 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ek-B_EZyoM8&list=PLV10HcLZH9q22J9QuHFmGfQ9knS34PqGm&index=4&t=0s.

Ruby Granger. ‘How I Stopped Procrastinating’. Accessed 6 May 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=il_8nmyk5WA.

Ruby Granger. ‘Ultimate Productivity Guide during Lockdown’. Accessed 6 May 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b0-trTFGfR4.

Tamate Weiss, Natasha. “Self-Care for Social Justice Oral Historians.” Groundswell, 2016. http://www.oralhistoryforsocialchange.org/blog/2016/6/17/0ddgw3kt10deh6kc7fgwg55uc0xm2b

Theidon, Kimberly “‘How Was Your Trip?’ Self-Care for Researchers Working and Writing on Violence,” Drugs, Security and Democracy Program Working Papers on Research Security, No. 2 (2014).

Therapy in a Nutshell. ‘Coping Skills and Self Care for Mental Health.’ Accessed 6 May 2020. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8e68An2juSI&list=PLV10HcLZH9q22J9QuHFmGfQ9knS34PqGm&index=1.

Eleonora Anedda was born in Muravera, Italy and was raised in a small town in Sardinia. In 2015 she began attending history classes at the University of Cagliari. Three years later, she was awarded a first-level degree in History with a dissertation on the case of Artemisia Gentileschi. Last year, Eleonora moved to London to study Queer History at Goldsmiths College. Her background in Women’s Studies and Early Modern Age Europe has given her a solid foundation to explore Contemporary LGBTQ+ History. Capturing the voices of minorities and the less represented has always been at the heart of her research interests; which is why she is thrilled and honoured to be part of Columbia’s OHMA. She recently launched an online exhibit Lesbismo Italiano Oral History Project which features a selection of oral histories on queer spaces narrated by two italian women.