Tag: COVID-19 outbreak

Our Common Thread

Our Common Thread is also the title of the June/July 2020 Vogue devoted to Creativity in a Time of Crisis.

Photos and quotes of actors photographers fashion designers and others detailed what they were doing living through the pandemic.

Here’s what my quote would be:

Christina Bruni – Brooklyn

I take joy in cooking meals. I feel better when I eat well and break a sweat.

As consistently as possible I exercise 2x per week. Going outside for walks I stay far away from people who haven’t covered their open faces.

My joy is thinking of the coming summer. The chance to talk walk outside even though I might have to use a bandanna to cover my face.

Little things count for a lot like cleaning the bathroom once a week.

My goals have been put on hold. I have the privilege to be indoors doing what it takes to be well so as not to get infected with the coronavirus.

Grocery workers and hospital workers are on the job every day. Their robust efforts make it possible for someone like me to be healthy.

What I’ve thought while life has turned around like a Tilt-a-Whirl ride through this uncertain time:

Be grateful for what you have. You have everything right inside you that you need to succeed. Respect the natural world and the human beings living alongside you on this green and glorious earth.

Each of us gets only this life to live on this one planet. Live for today. Focus on the present moment before it’s gone.

Today is the greatest day. Only today matters.

The past had an expiration date–it ended. The future isn’t guaranteed.

Today is a gift to open and rejoice in.

Pay attention to the birds singing on your fire escape. Listen to the song of life.

There’s no safety in playing it safe. The path of least resistance leads to a dead end.

Taking a Detour

In light of the COVID-19 pandemic I want to talk about taking a detour.

My life didn’t get better until I turned 35 and started my library job.

Shunted into the mental health system early in my recovery I was forced to take a detour.

Let me tell you a detour is not a dead-end. It’s a pit stop along the way to a different path.

Maybe you’re not supposed to get what you want quickly and painlessly.

That is the goal as I see it–to embrace the struggle for what it is– a learning of something you need to know in order to get what you want.

I care a lot that in this pandemic everything seems to have been put on hold. A sunny day can be harder to envision.

Sometimes where you start out isn’t where you should remain.

That is the ultimate purpose of a detour: to cement in your mind the one true path you must go down to be happy and fulfilled.

You don’t often figure out until you experience firsthand a setback the truth about who you are and where you should be going in life.

Again–I think of these things during the pandemic we’re living through. Of how it can seem like this is the end of everything–the end of your hopes and dreams for whatever you had hoped to achieve.

I say: use this time to engage in active reflection.  Get out a notebook and sketch out what your goals will be when the pandemic is over.

Shore up your good feelings while you shelter in place.

Remember that after things get better there’s so much life for all of us to live.

Stirring the Sauce

Experiencing a plateau can be likened to stirring the sauce for Sunday macaroni supper. It will take time to heat up.

Sometimes engaging in a repetitive act is necessary. It can seem like you are not getting anywhere. What is the purpose of doing the same thing over and over?

It is to get in the groove of a healthy habit. The secret sauce you are simmering is your recovery. It could take years to get to where you want to be.

The Changeology book goal-setting method is a 90-day action plan comprised of 5 Steps:

Psych

Prep

Perspire

Persevere

Persist

Committing to executing the plan for 90 days can set in motion a healthy habit that lasts.

In coming blog entries I will talk about a couple goals I set that have stuck.

In fact living through the pandemic has made it easier for me to achieve these goals.

Soon it will be coming up on one year since I first started making these changes.

My own experience with setting these goals might empower you to go after your own goals with gusto.

Woodshedding in Recovery

Easily over 15 years ago when I first started out as a Mental Health Activist I read about using the woodshedding technique in recovery.

Originally the concept of woodshedding referred to jazz musicians who go into a shed or room to practice their instrument.

The goal was to great improve or to perfect a part of what they were playing.

In recovery going into a woodshed happens any time you need to rest and recharge your batteries.

In the reference to woodshedding that I first read the writer talked about how individuals living in recovery seem to be in a plateau.

Even though we are in a plateau at this point we can go on to achieve things.

The woman interviewed in the article talked about needing to be alone to heal and to process what was going on.

Woodshedding can take place at any point in a person’s recovery.

Living through the COVID-19 pandemic is a natural plateau that everyone is experiencing.

It makes sense that it’s the perfect time to engage in woodshedding while we’re sheltering in place in our rooms.

In the next blog entry I will talk about my own metaphor for healing habits in recovery.

Love Must Win

Having an Attitude of Gratitude makes all the difference in a time of crisis.

My refrigerator is more stocked with food now than it was before the COVID-19 outbreak.

I’m grateful for my good fortune.

In this time of hardship a friend told me to remember all that I’m doing to give joy to people who read my writing.

Life is bigger than your pain. Find what your purpose is for being here. Going and doing that can help you transmute your pain into something positive.

Early on in my recovery I wanted to turn my pain into a thing of beauty for other people.

Even though a lot of us and most likely a significant number of us are sheltering in place we are all together in this changed world.

It’s time to think of how we want to live and what we want to do after each of us returns to going outdoors.

Egotism and bigotry must not prevail.

It’s 2020.

Too late in the history of humankind to continue to engage in hate, killing, violence, and war.

War is not the solution.

Won’t you join me in committing to shifting the needle to the left of the dial after the pandemic has ended?

Today is the day to think of the day we’re going to return outside.

We can each of us decide to love.

Love wins. It always does.