Anne Frank’s Diary-A must read to sail through these tough times!

Today I heard the true story of Anne Frank, A German-born Dutch-Jewish diarist. She was one of the most famous victims of the holocaust and she received much appreciation posthumously with the publication of her book, “The diary of the young girl”, in which she has documented her locked down life of two years and one month. This book is in a way a whole life in itself as it depicts a time wherein a family has to stay isolated in a building (which is her father’s company) behind a bookshelf without anyone having much idea about their hideout and existence.

Now imagine a time during World War II when a family had no connection with the outside world and did not see the sunlight for 25 months. They lived on whatever bare they had, never left the place for that duration, had no communication with anyone and they could not let anyone sniff about their existence otherwise their life could be on risk. In the meanwhile, this thirteen-year-old girl starts writing her diary compiling various life experiences with her parents and other members who were together in that hideout. While documenting her tasks every day, she writes the way she has explored her life and built up relationships with her family. She also dreams to be free from the war and imagines what a life she could lead to post isolation. She is always so motivated, prompt and positive in her tone fantasizing the day when they all will be free from the hideout and life will be back to normal.  

"Reading Anne Frank’s diary is a journey of inspiration and hope in itself."

Being quarantined in our homes, we are getting many positive and negative emotions in a single day. Sometimes we are so depressed and anxious that we start cribbing about everything around and the next moment we somehow find a way to start afresh with hope and motivation. But we are blessed that we are still safe with our family and we are not in any hideouts like that young girl. We are well connected with our friends and colleagues, Thanks to technology which is bringing us closer in these crises. The beauty of these tough times is that it acts as a catalyst in exploring ourselves much better than we think. In these times some of us have developed one of our hidden skills or talents and some of us have gained momentum in our falling relationships while others are still busy on their projects while working from home.

The point is that it is very important to keep ourselves engrossed in one or the other tasks while being locked down as it will not only help in keeping us busy but it will also divert our energies into something more productive. We need to uprise from the situation so well that we would be able to bounce back with much more eagerness and readiness than ever. How should we uphold our spirits now will define our attitudes and altitudes later on.

"Where there’s hope there’s life, it fills us with fresh courage and makes us strong again." - Anne Frank

The best thing we can do to utilize this time is investing in ourselves. In the history of our generation we never had such times which gives us such huge bandwidth when we can discover our true selves. This is the right time to get started with our skills. We can take up the passion for reading, writing, dancing, playing musical instruments or cooking as our mainstreams at least for this period. Let’s not kill this time only in lazying around but let’s take a pledge to learn at least one new thing these days so that we come up with flying colors in the days after this lockdown.

Let’s start imagining how beautiful our lives and relationships will be once this crisis is over. I know that many of us will be facing many hardships financially and emotionally but positive thinking like this will give a boosting factor and keep us upright in this kind of situation imparting a stimulus to growth as an individual and make this time a cherishing lifetime experience.

As Anne Frank truly said,

"I don’t think of all the misery. But of the beauty that still remains." - Anne Frank

Swati Jain

(Life Coach)