What does resilience look like during a quarantine?
TL;dr summary: Resiliency - it looks different on everyone. We are all feeling the fatigue of the prolonged stress of the COVID pandemic. Social isolation, uncertainty about the future, masking, loss of our routines and joys. It is exhausting. Trying to be “resilient” during this time can feel uneven. Give yourself some compassion.
Are you struggling? Do you feel not like yourself? I invite you to take a moment to live in the truth of your most personal response. If you are a truthful human being, most likely your answer is ‘yes’ and ‘no’. Some days you might leap out of bed ready to be productive with the newfound time of this no commute shelter in place. Other days you may have a hard time finding any motivation to move forward. Perhaps you are not bouncing back as strongly to your normal self, and so you don’t feel resilient.
Give yourself compassion and love for both types of responses - they each may serve you differently to refuel your energy tank.
It is tough to maintain an even keel when there is no clear endpoint to the uncertainty and no compass guiding us through massive social and economic changes. It’s hard to be unafraid with truly alarming news coming at us daily. It’s hard to set goals. It’s hard to stay upbeat. And It’s hard to feel that you have no control.
But that does not define your resilience. Resilience is defined not by unwavering energy, but rather by being both flexible and true to your own values as life changes around you.
We are all making adjustments in our daily lives right now. You may need to adjust your short- and long-term goals, to reevaluate your plans, and to rethink some of your previous decisions. Understandably, this constant change can feel exhausting.
This week I found myself drawn back to Viktor Frankl’s book “Man’s Search for Meaning”. He survived the concentration camps of Nazi Germany and lived a horrific experience - but decided to keep compassion as his core value. Frankl chose to maintain humor and humanity, believing that we can continue to find meaning and joy even in unspeakably horrible times.
“Everything can be taken from a man but one thing: the last of the human freedoms - to choose one’s attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one’s own way.”
This is the resilience to cultivate now. To define your core meaning, to reach towards your healthiest self, to live with humanity. Although this process can be tiring, perhaps painful, it provides an opportunity: for introspective change, for clarifying your truest sense of purpose, and for finding your best and highest self in the era of a new normal.
Be well. Have self-compassion. Be prepared to go down new paths, in many different directions.
And wash your hands!