But how accepting it can lead to a positive outcome
Over the last several days I have spoken to quite a few people. Between interviewing for my podcast and getting on zoom with prayer with my church family or just talking one the phone to friends and family, I have heard quite a few different opinions and ideas about this strange moment in time we are living through.
Just thinking about right now, the sun is shining and kids are playing ten feet apart from each other and it seems like the world is …doing okay. Obviously there are some places that are struggling with the virus, I don’t deny that. Though we have more cases in the States, Europe seems to be struggling with a higher death rate. And the poor healthcare workers have to wear that protective gear constantly whether they are in the heat of the ICU or not.
I was thinking today tat when a giant crisis comes and goes in history, we tend to read about it in a very concentrated way. We learn about WWII in a string of dates that, although they are not, seem like they are close together since we don’t learn about all the days in-between. And while there were horrendous things happening in the concentration camps and there were restrictions everywhere, there were still days in neighborhoods when the sun was shining and kids were playing together. What I mean is, reality is so strange.
This doesn’t mean that things aren’t changing. People are anxious about jobs and the economy, about the way governments so easily restricted freedoms, whether this will ever end, whether they will get toilet paper (hello, preppers..don’t you feel good about yourself? I swear I will always have an abundance of toilet paper from now on in my house. Too late for this moment though…)
Don’t judge me, I was trying not to add to the panic.
The world is changing and what is worse is that each day seems to be just little bit different. We have good news from New York that hospitalization rates have slowed instead of increased. Yea NYC! But that certainly doesn’t say we are allowed to go back to life as normal.
Does anyone know what normal is? Do you long for normal or are you wondering if you would know what it looked like anyway? It hadn’t been that long ago. Yet. But what we do know is that the here and now is uncomfortable. The here and now is very different. Right now we are asked too tay home and not go out. Even if we wanted to go out there is no place to go. Our kids are home, our spouses are home (more or less) and unless we are essential workers, we are home. Nothing is normal. Everything is changed.
One of the worst things about change is that it’s uncomfortable. It really throws off our minds and bodies. Change is not the path of least resistance, which our brain prefers. We could go into the biology of it, but basically our bodies tend towards conserving energy. Whether that is due to the cave men conserving anergy for a hunt to come in a few days or whether it’s just the breakdown of the human body, it doesn’t matter. Everyone has their beliefs. The truth matters and that truth is that we tend toward he path of least resistance; The road mostly traveled.
We are now on a road untravled and we can’t see ahead of ourselves. Which is uncomfortable to say the least and downright frightening for us humans at the most. And going back to all the people I’ve been talking to, a lot fo people are taking on this approach: of being uncomfrtable and taking that feeling and allowing it to spiral into fear. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been there quite a few times during this process. But here is a truth: Everyoe is uncomfrtable right now. Every single person in most of the world. Every person is stuck in some sense, at home. Even if they can go to work, there are fewer coworders to speak to and the majority of us are literally stuck at home. Even when we feel like maybe it’s time to leaev the house simply for a chage of scenery, we can’t other than to go to the grocery story or to walk. I don’t know about you but I’ve walked so much these last few days….
Everyone feel stuck and uncomfrtable, but the greatest thing about this unicersal discomfort is that you can make a choice to stay stuck in discomfort until you can get your Starbucks or go shopping or get your nails done or have a beer in your favorite bar, or you can be one of the few who will use this opportuniyt of already feeling uncomfrtable to change something about yourself. Change is hard. New habits are hard. But since you’re uncomfortable already, why not use that discomfort to your advantage? Maybe its time to stop smoking by rationing the cigarettes? Perhaps you always wanted to make videos for your business and not you can choose to practice being in front of the camera even it it;s for trashing instead of posting.
You could use this discomfort to your adcatage and hone in on something good that will have some really nice consequences at the end of this, or you could just sit in the discomfort witing for the day that you can be cmfortable again, all day in your pjs and waste it all.