Learn how to stop getting overwhelmed by COVID

I SEE YOU.  Your struggle.  Your frustration.  Your irritability.  Perhaps in silence.  I am right there with you and you’re not alone.   

Overwhelm is bubbling up, ready to explode.  Covid has snatched our usual outlets and in-person sense of tribe.  Friend reunions planned months in advanced along with weddings, ski trips, beach vacations, Saturday night date nights all canceled in the blink of an eye.  This pandemic has constricted many of us depending on our risk tolerance aversion.  

Stress affects me more deeply now.  My usual stress busters of meeting up with friends, getting a massage or manicure, doing a kickboxing class, seeing a movie, or shopping in person have all stopped.  I now have working out, meditation, and connecting with friends via text/call/zoom as my stress release.

 It has been a struggle to say the least.  Coaching brings me a lot of joy and I am grateful for that.  However, the stress often rises within me and I don’t know where to place it.  I don’t know what to do with it.

 I am going to admit something here.  On the interwebs.  I put on Coldplay and I sob.  For 5 minutes or 10 minutes sometimes and this is cathartic.  I might have judged an exercise like thisnpre-COVID, but today, all bets are off.  I think outside the box on how to cope with the curve balls life may throw.  This pandemic has been the curviest of them all. 

 I thought about baking more as a hobby because it brings me happiness and I have a knack for it.  I also considered the consequences of that: obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, sugar high and crashes and decided against that.  Hence, I am cooking a little more.  Nothing crazy.  Just making use of the dust-covered, shoved in the back corner of the farthest cabinet instant pot.  My goal is to be able to whip up a quick meal with ease.  This activity will give me a new hobby and will serve me long after the pandemic.

 Though COVID has managed to literally turn the world upside down, we got this.  We are so much more strong and resilient than we give ourselves credit for.  Especially we as women.  (Sorry, men).  We are able to bear children and physically carry an extra weight 24/7 for months at a time!  A man could NEVER.  

 This too shall pass.  I tell myself that with increasing frequency as the days go on.  I will laugh in person with my friends again, shove through a crowded concert to hear better (with much less irritation), and board an international plane for an adventure again.  With the development of vaccines, there is finally light.  Until then, I make the most of each day, albeit Groundhog’s Day to some extent, and dig deep into my own creative corners to emerge from the quicksand that is the pandemic.