Photo: Vasyl Hnyp
Uncertainty
It’s tough right now. We’ve all been taken out of our normal every day scheduled lives. None of us have any idea what’s going to happen over the next weeks, months, however long. This pandemic has thrown us all for a loop. It’s put us all in a situation where we have a lot of uncertainty on what’s going on in the world, what to do, what’s the right move to protect ourselves and others. How often do I go out to the store? When will my income return? Is it ok to go the park as long as I stay away from other people? But other people are there. Who else is being conscious of the situation? Tons of question marks and it is totally placing people in a whirlwind of emotions. Trust me, I feel it and I hear it every day in my work.
The gift that we’re being given in this whole ordeal is understanding uncertainty, then finding the things that we can control in our worlds, understanding we really don’t have THAT much control anyway, and we have to deal more with our deeper rooted shit. A lot of our freedoms have been stripped from us (and all for good reason-our heath and well-being of humanity), so we can take a look at the things we can take into our hands. Actions make us feel better. When we are doing something toward some type of purpose, it allows us to feel as though we are making a contribution and that provides us with joy. When we don’t have that, we are left feeling empty. So we can do what we can do during our new found time at home. That’s good…do more good things for others! But the rest of our time is left to the uncertain. It’s left for us to have to deal with our shit. Most of the time, we can just “do” our way out of what we have going emotionally. Right now, we have to sit with it and be all up in it. There’s no way around it. Well, I guess the liquor stores are still considered essential…
Are you the doer? The one that’s go go go non-stop? You’re probably reading this thinking, go screw off man. If so, this is your time. When we are unable to place our attention on other things, we have to deal with our shit. With that, acceptance of the situation and exposing ourselves to things that make us uncomfortable is one of the strongest ways to reduce our discomfort. What’s the thing making you most emotionally uncomfortable right now? No, not that you can’t go to the gym. No, not that you’re stuck in your house. No, not that I can’t hang out with my friends in person. Every single one of us feels shitty because of those things. Dig deeper. That’s it. Right there. Maybe you’re saying, “I have to be a more effective communicator to my spouse,” or, “I don’t like being alone because of that thing that happened years ago.” Now, we’re getting there. Right now, most of our deep rooted shit is coming up because we don’t have those outlets. The things that take us away from our feelings. Allow those feelings and discomfort to be and work on them. We are being placed in these spots, so we might as well use this time to bring light to them. If you need to be a better communicator, muster up the guts to do one thing a day to make you better at that and the list goes on. The uncertainty of how long life will be like this is unknown. Hell yeah, I want my regular life to return back to normal just as much as you do, but so long as we’re here, we might as well do something about these called emotions.