Why this winter is the perfect time to write your life stories
BY READERS DIGEST
24th Dec 2020 Life
Loneliness. We’ve all felt it at times. Perhaps even more so in the last few months with everyday life put on hold and the restrictions and lockdowns across the country making it harder to see our families and friends
The loneliness epidemic isn’t a new issue but it is one that has been exacerbated and intensified by the challenges we have all faced recently. Age UK reported that the first lockdown in 2020 drove an 88% surge in calls to the Age UK advice line and a 300% rise to their befriending services (1). It also flagged that more than 850,000 older people would be spending the festive period alone (2).
If you or a loved one are experiencing loneliness this winter, one way to meaningfully occupy your time is to think about writing your life stories. Writing your memoirs provides the perfect project to help occupy your time and could prove to be a powerful tonic to the isolation and loneliness you may be feeling. With time to think about your life experiences and more time in which to document them, it’s a great way for you to look back and reflect and take your mind off what is going on in the world and is an interesting, meaningful and positive project on which to focus during these cold and long winter months.
One of the positives to come out of the global crisis is that many of us have realised the true importance of friendship and of family. Living through Covid-19 has made us redefine our values and think about being more kind, more grateful and more supportive. It’s also made us realise the importance of legacy and the value of every day connections with the people in our life.
“Following the dreadful year the country and indeed the world has gone through – lockdowns, restrictions of movement and disruption to normal family life, I consider now the ideal time for anyone to embark on a winter project with LifeBook. Everyone has a story to tell and I would say to anyone who has thought about putting their life stories into print, don’t think about it too much, just do it and do it with LifeBook, you will be well rewarded.”
—Alan Beckett, LifeBook author
A LifeBook autobiography or memoir is an engaging, therapeutic project that captures the incredible stories of your life and your history. A permanent record of your life that is preserved forever for your family, in beautiful, handmade books, that are created from listening carefully to the recollections of your life, your memoirs.
If you work with LifeBook to capture your stories you will have regular conversations with an interviewer than is chosen just for you and will get to receive instalments of your book to review and amend as you see fit.
For some, just the regular interviews and a quick read of the latest instalment of their book is enough. For others, it encourages them to pick up the phone and laugh with family and friends about memories and events, or to research major world events from their life, or to bring out the old family photo albums to jog some memories.
Due to the many restrictions across the globe, most authors have written their life stories in 2020 by interacting with the LifeBook team over video call. This is facilitated entirely by LifeBook from start to finish, which includes sending a paid SIM enabled tablet so you dont need access to Wi-Fi or routers, with the video calling app already installed, detailed instruction provided and a project manager allocated to help set up each video call. Making it a simple and easy process for even the most anxious of technophobes, with the added benefit of you being able to keep the tablet and access video calling for the duration of the project. Meaning you can increase your interactions and feel more connected with your family and friends during that time too.
This has been the best way to keep everyone safe during the pandemic, but as soon as its possible LifeBook will revert to arranging local interviewers for each author wherever they are in the world so you can enjoy face to face companionship with their interviewer.
Gifting yourself, an older family member or loved one a LifeBook project will give you the opportunity to reflect, to reminisce, to explore your memories, to record and celebrate your life stories while helping to occupy your time and embrace these long, dark evenings by focusing on a positive project with happiness.
For more information on how to start your memoir project with LifeBook call 0800 999 2280 or visit the LifeBook website.
LifeBook – the perfect winter project.
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