The answer is not yet but we’ll sort of be there soon. Waiting is probably the hardest part of this Covid 19 journey. We’re stuck at home, cabin fever is rampant, and no definite answers are coming from any authority on exactly when we will arrive. Research tell us that people cope better with bad news than no news and what we’ve got right now is no news. Yes, it looks like, at least in Washington State, we’ll be coming out of our houses slowly evaluating who and what we reconnect with sometime in May.
Yes we can guess there will be a suspension of sporting events and education until September. Yes large gatherings and mass travel will be discouraged. And yes indeed no one may go back to shaking hands.
SOLUTIONS AND TOOLS
- Realize your current life is a short phase and there is an end in sight. Make plans for what you want to do as you emerge into the sunlight cautiously in May.
- Realize nobody loves waiting – we love arriving. Yet most of life exists in a waiting room of one kind or another. We wait to grow up, graduate, fall in love, get a job, get a better job, have a baby, and…wait for baby to grow up coming full cycle. Since we spend so much time waiting our current waiting gives us a chance to develop acceptance with the anxiety that waiting creates.
- We will not go back in May to the lives we had in February. We won’t have the confidence to boldly go out until we have a vaccine, good combo of meds that prevent lethality, or complete remission of new cases. We can live high-quality lives and still be cautious.
- We cannot and will not know the unknowable no matter how smart we are. We can read expert opinions, predictions, and make educated guesses. Simultaneously we all are wondering just how this will turn out. We can trust our ability to problem solve and be resourceful without having a crystal ball.
- Be okay about feeling crappy and still practice making good choices. Most of how life turns out isn’t avoiding feeling bad but whether we act badly. We will all feel crappy at times right now but we can make choices that will benefit us in the long run.
In the meantime, with your nose pressed against the glass as we travel this unprecedented road you can count on your situation changing. We changed into the pandemic and we will change out of it. In the future you will still be waiting, for a vacation, for a date, or for a promotion. What you have the chance to develop is patience in the perpetual waiting room of life.
May you be well, may you be at peace, may you come out of this crisis better than you went in…
Warmly,
Dr. Skube