You know that thing you’ve been noticing in yourself? It happens when you check your email and get a barrage from all the companies and organizations, most that have no real bearing on your life, on how they are handling COVID-19. You turn to the news, social media, or whatever format you choose to digest information these days. You find yourself searching for answers...
What is happening? When will this be over? Am I safe? What’s the cause? What’s the next thing that’s going to be cancelled? What can I do?
And the daily sinking does not go away, and that’s likely for this reason: emotions.
Some of us deny having them ourselves, some of us spend hours criticizing others for “not having them,” and still others of us say “we can’t let them rule us”. However we chose to view emotions before now, we may have thought we were doing a good job managing and getting by or over or through daily life.
But if this pandemic is showing us anything, at least in America, it is that we are not the most emotionally savvy country.
It is probably just as important during this time to take note of how to stay well emotionally as much as physically. Yes, hand-washing, social isolation and now mask wearing are important, but the conversation that is crucial to staying mentally, emotionally and spiritually well. These are issues that many are vulnerable to beyond the immuno-compromised, so it is time we do some gut checking on our emotional competency. Truth be told, these are probably things we all need to be doing anyway - there is nothing like a little “encouragement” in the form of a pandemic!
Today, after talking about being sad and being angry, we must all admit that we are a little afraid….
Be Afraid
Along with making us angry, that thing that is threatening us, that thing we cannot see, it is scaring us too. It is what makes us panic shop, digest hours of news looking for some hope, or search for some dove with an olive branch that tells us this is going to come to an end, that the waters are essentially receding.
We are all afraid. But in the face of our fear, or any of our emotions, we often turn to control. We are afraid to be afraid, sad or angry, so we look for any morsel of information that helps us feel that we can control the current situation. To wear or to not wear a mask? How much toilet paper can we fit in the house? Will there be a return of the NBA, a start to MLB or a college football season at all? When they say stay home, they don’t mean for everything right?
We all want to control this thing, lest we truly feel our fear.
But again, can we try just once more to admit our fears? It’s as practical as saying “I am afraid of...” to ourselves and others. This verbal acknowledgement is the first step to reducing anxiety. Naming the fear can serve to reduce its unseen control over us, because in reality, fear has true control when it becomes anxiety- those thoughts tumbling around in the brain like a washing machine on spin cycle.
In speaking aloud our fear, we stop our ineffective manner of dealing with our fears by reading every news story or piece of information or again, almost trying to force something sort of event or thing, or ruminating over and over about will this or that happen. We are afraid and it is okay to be afraid. It is not helpful or okay to try to avoid fear entirely by going about “business as usual” or constantly searching for the latest piece of information or development.
Therefore, what will it take for you to step into your fear today, acknowledge it, and try to walk forward in faith (believing in what you cannot see) and wisdom (knowledge gained from a life lived)?