Last Updated on April 17, 2023 by Chin Yi Xuan

Every weekend, I have a habit to reflect on things I am grateful for. In a specific section, I’d write down things that I did well for the week.

Lately, I am just grateful for the fact that I am surviving the week (and month):

Tough, tough April

April thus far has been extremely challenging.

Every week, I have multiple deadlines to meet. Some tasks are me (being me) overestimating my capabilities, while some are impromptu ones that I am somewhat obliged to fulfill.

Well, that is still bearable, considering that fulfilling deadlines are part of the thing I do as a content creator.

What’s not, is I’ve been suffering from a prolonged coughing situation since early this year, which is close to 4 months now.

This means my coughing has been causing me to stay awake at night, and I had to rely on cough syrup on some days just to get myself to sleep.

Cough syrup sucks.

Needless to say, my sleep has been BAD – not for a few days, but for MONTHS.


The result of bad sleep and multiple deadlines?

I ran out of creative juice.

I struggled hard to create content.

I get distracted and frustrated more easily.

My auto-coping mechanism, apparently, is binge-watching movies and dramas till late at night to escape from all the deadlines that I got to fulfill.

And this causes a downward spiral of even more late nights of sleeplessness (and hence cough syrup), and feeling guilty for waking up feeling like a piece of unproductive sh*t.

And yeah, the dizziness from cough syrup whenever I wake up doesn’t help make things better.


Sometimes in life, simply surviving is good enough

Despite all the chaos around, I delivered.

I delivered my task by the deadline this week.

I went to the gym as per my usual routine this week (though I had to reduce the weights).

I did my first-ever Bursa webinar this week.

I f*cking survived the week (and the month, so far).

Sometimes, simply surviving is good enough. And I am genuinely glad that I did.

I am also grateful that I was mindful of all the negative emotions lingering in my head lately.

A few days ago, I made myself write down all the thoughts I had in my mind:

Writing thoughts down in words helps.

Taking it one step at a time

With life full of chaos lately, I am glad that I found out about my negative emotions early.

My priority now would be to prioritize my mental & physical health over everything else.

This means:

  • Visit the doctor about my coughing matter.
  • Rest early. And rest more.
  • Reduce time-sensitive tasks for Quarter 2.
  • Block time to clean up my room that is too cluttered with stuffs.
  • Workout as per routine.
  • Stay grateful.

Regardless, in times like this, I am genuinely grateful that I have an avenue like this blog to rant/express/spill out my thoughts in words.

If you are reading this and are currently going through a difficult time, remember:


Sometimes in life, simply surviving is good enough.


And write things down – it helps!