The Center for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting high rates of depression – and political and economic uncertainly is contributing to our feelings of despair – even with the dawning of a number of vaccines on the immediate horizon to fight Covid-19.
How can we counteract these feelings?
How can we surmount our mood of helplessness and hopelessness?
So many of us have missed weddings, graduations, bar and bat mitzvahs, births, and funerals
So many of us have postponed trips
Canceled milestone celebrations
Curtailed social outings
It’s so easy to slip into a permanent mindset of annoyance, frustration, and disappointment – bitterness even – because we won’t get these times back.
What can we do?
Here are some suggestions to change a few things:
All of which involve self-care
All of which involve putting yourself first.
Let us practice resiliency.
Physical resilience is the ability to spring back into shape after bending, stretching or being compressed – and our lives are certainly being compressed.
And when the definition of resiliency is applied to people, it means being able to withstand or recover from difficult conditions.
So how do we cultivate and practice both types of resiliency?
We focus on the positive – we look for the gifts in the still waters.
Let us utilize our imagination, resources and innovative talents to come up with life-affirming actions we can put into place NOW:
- Calling a friend who is lonely to say hello
- Collecting food for a family in need
- Exercising
- Communing with nature
- Reaching out to our own support system for sustenance and encouragement
- Making a list of what we’d like to do post-Covid – it’s easier to get through difficult times when we have an event or activity or trip to look forward to
- Taking advantage of COVID confinement to learn a new skill – knitting, cooking, survey of literature, painting – there are a vast number of courses online
- De-cluttering our stuff
- Documenting our belongings and keepsakes for those who will come after, identifying all those unfamiliar faces in those long-ago pictures
- Writing an ethical will
- Going on a healthy exercise and nutrition regiment
- Fine-tuning our sleepy time routine to ensure we get as much restful sleep as possible
Let us employ self-compassion
Let us treat ourselves with the same kindness, warmth and patience that we treat people who are near and dear to us.
We may still be in the Covid tunnel of Hell, but the light at the end of it has appeared in the form of vaccines and is glowing brightly and steadily stronger as we approach it. . .
G-d Bless you all and G-d Bless America.
And Keep Preserving Your Bloom,
Iris Ruth Pastor
Hugs, Iris