So many people are struggling at the moment. No one likes their activities to be restricted and yet the options are stark: eliminate most activities we know and love or looked forward to — or risk death or terrible, llngering side effects.
Yes, there are those who don’t connect with the risk, but I’m not talking to them. I’m talking to YOU. Those of you who are worried and/or vulnerable. Those who have learned enough about the virus to want to steer clear. Those who value what they hope lies ahead and want to preserve those options for the still unknown future.
Yes, I’m talking to you.
It’s important to feel your concerns and fears. To voice them to trusted friends who know how to listen. We have to get those feelings out. Because the struggle is real and we all share it.
And then? It’s important to let them go. Because living with resentment and the feeling we’ve been cheated is no way to live. It’s also not a good thing to model for the kids in our lives.
It’s not useful, either, because there is absolutely nothing we can do about it. The virus will run its course in months or even years and we will have to adapt — or live in constant grief for the way it was.
Life is not the way it was and may not ever be the way it was. We may never go back to those carefree days, or at least not for a very long time. The struggle with that is real, but it is also futile. And harmful to our mental and physical health, both.
We’re taught to be masters of our own destiny. To create our lives. To manifest our desires.
Apparently, the Universe has other ideas at the moment.
So here’s how to manage through this period:
Accept that at this moment, we are completely powerless over something: the virus. But this isn’t forever. It’s just right now.
Realize that we do have power and agency over our own actions and our own thoughts.
Consider whether you accept our obligation to our fellow man and to ourselves and want to keep everyone safe. Or if you are bound and determined to do what you want, regardless of others.
Once you’ve expressed your emotions and gotten them all out, move forward. Accept that this is how life is at the moment and find positive ways to work within that.
There are any number of online resources with suggestions for things we can do to make life more interesting: video calls and parties, reading, streaming, walks, learning music on line or a new language. Or just taking time for yourself to do nothing.
Resources also abound for jobs that are opening up. New kinds of jobs. Or new to you. Check into it all. And there are relief programs. It’s all imperfect, but every day I see people fitting solutions together. Not the solutions they necessarily wanted, but effective stop-gap solutions.
Any emphasis on what we AREN”T able to do just isn’t useful to a healthy life during this pandemic. Attitude is everything.
It’s pretty clear that we’ll never see our old lives back. But. Eventually, the risk will be lower. Eventually a new way of life will develop. We will learn new ways of living and working and relating.
We’ll grieve the old ways for a long time. But right now, as so many of us are focused on survival, it’s helpful to set that grief aside for a bit as we maintain good mental and physical health to manage through what’s in front of us. Let the Universe unfold as it will. Go on with your life as it is right now.
This is not my usual counsel on grief. But this is what I’ve come to see as most useful at the moment.
If you’d like to consider some hypnotherapy to help with anxious thoughts or a regression by Zoom, let’s talk about it. First, visit the home page here and see the tabs for hypnotherapy and for regression, then schedule a call to discuss it. It’s easy.
That’s what I’ve got for you today. Thank you for being part of my community. Would love to hear your thoughts.
It doesn’t help that innocent black men are being killed on a regular basis either – some things will never change!
It’s horrible. It is just mind-boggling that this is occurring so often.
Dear Carol and Friends, there’s a plague alright, narcissism has gone full blown – using the flu (that’s what it is) an excuse to persecute working people. Yeah, i’m “adjjjustinng,” and making a concerted effort to remain within the Lord’s will. Ya know “be angry, but sin not.” Talk about the “narrow road!”