Dealing with Feelings During COVID

A lot of us are going on a month or so of quarantining. It’s a crazy, unprecedented time to be alive. Navigating it in theory seems like it should be simple or easy. That’s hardly the case when it’s such a vast departure for most of our regularly scheduled lives. Not sure about y’all, but Caitlin and I normally have booked up schedules. Like, maybe one night a week where we don’t have an intramural sport, or appointment or blog event. That’s on top of heading to the gym most days, or seeing a movie at the theater. So to sit at home for days on end is as foreign to us as visiting a different planet. Part of that is ok; to slow down and be in your own environment. The other part is, it presents a new set of challenges.

Challenge number one is, working from home for most of us isn’t ideal. We’re used to having several monitors, instead of one smaller laptop screen. When dealing with spreadsheets and comparing several applications, it’s much more difficult to navigate. Plus not sure if anyone else struggles with your laptop being click happy and selecting things you didn’t ask it to, but that is a major frustration for me (I did turn down the sensitivity of my navigation mouse pad but it didn’t improve anything noticeably). You might not have a chair or even a desk that is comfortable to work at. Let’s call it what it is, working from home is a challenge unless you have the appropriate set up in place.

The flip side of that, is being grateful to still have a job. These are scary times we’re living in, and they are forecasting that unemployment will reach 15% of the population. If that’s you, please understand and take these complaints with a grain of salt. We only can easily inhabit our own lives/problems. We’re sensitive to the fact that other people assuredly have bigger issues than this. This post is just meant to work through frustrations/feelings.

Challenge number 2 is cancelled life. Life as we know it, is on pause. It’s ok to mourn the missed events. Caitlin and the rest of our family just missed their trip to Asheville at the end of March. We all create these expectations/plans and when they fall through it creates disappointment. Looking back on old trips can be a great way to relive memories you’ve already made. Like our trip to London last year, as it approaches the one year anniversary. We can look back and smile, remembering all the incredible memories we made with our aunt and our mom. Even beyond anything as big/momentous as a trip, it’s truly ok to be sad about whatever you’re missing in your regular life. To ignore it is to invalidate your feelings.

We’re not telling you to spend all day dwelling on it, but maybe grab your journal or a piece of paper and just get your feelings down. Make a list of the things you’re missing. Once you’re done, make a new list of things you can do while at home to look forward to. It might be a smaller list, but it might open your eyes and move your thoughts towards something positive. For me, our home renovation is put on hold as it’s non-essential. I totally understand and respect that, but it’s still something I’ve been looking forward to for almost five years. Instead I’m taking this time to make a list of other updates/game plans we’d like to tend to, ourselves. It’s been fun to look through pinterest and see the ideas/move ahead virtually while we cant see physical improvements.

The bottom line is this. We’re all going to have different feelings during this time. Some people are going to want to keep busy and do whatever they can. Other people might just feel frozen, like they need to cozy up on the couch and zone out. There isn’t a right way to handle any of this. Don’t let anyone invalidate your feelings. We will all figure out different ways to cope during this quarantine. We’d love for you to share some of your feelings in the comments below and connect/commiserate with you. Tell us where you’re at with everything.