The truth is, all of this has always been here. We’ve always been distracted, numbing our difficult emotions like loneliness and sadness and anger with social media, food, alcohol and other comforts. We’ve always felt uncertainty, anxiety, frustration and overwhelm.
It’s just that this pandemic has brought it all front and center. Put it directly in our faces, so we can’t ignore it.
That’s difficult, but it’s also an opportunity — to look directly at the things we don’t want to admit to ourselves.
To become present to our emotions.
To train ourselves in compassion, gratitude, wonder, connection, meaning and mindfulness.
It’s terrible that people are getting sick and dying, of course — we don’t want to pretend that everything is rainbows and unicorns. It’s terrible that people are turning to drugs and other unhealthy ways of coping with all of this.
But I believe in making the most of whatever is in front of us. Let’s use the opportunity of this time.