We've all been through a lot since the beginning of COVID. With something that seemed like it should have just been a passing concern, or maybe just 2-3 weeks of lockdown and then going back to normal, it's been an ongoing, chronic stressor that has taken its toll on everyone. If you are someone that has had COVID, had family members with COVID or just been exposed through lockdowns, news, social distancing and masks...this has been a stressor that in many ways is unprecedented in our lifetimes. It means living with ongoing uncertainty and ambiguity where we don't know what is next and what could happen.
Uncertainty and ambiguity are also triggers for anxiety, stress and depression. Some estimates say that there is at least a 40% increase in depression in the United States. On top of this, there has been internal migration within the country and around the world, with people moving to places they think will be better and working remotely or living on unemployment assistance. Also, rising and falling of stocks, rising housing prices, and just in general a lot of changes happening amidst a lot of insecurity and ambiguity.
All of this to say, at some point for many people, there is a sense of exhaustion, insecurity and just 'when will things go back to normal?'
But ultimately everything is some form of energy and is creating itself and continuing by the momentum behind it. No matter what is happening... if it's wonderful, awful, or seemingly never-ending there is a momentum to it, and if you get stuck in it, it can feel like you are trapped in an unending loop. Yes this is great if you're experiencing something positive, but if it's negative or miserable like what has happened with COVID, you can feel trapped which can be exhausting. Eventually being stuck in the cycle itself can become tiring and you just want out. You don't know how, but somehow you know there's an out.
One of the biggest things I see with clients is wanting to be free of cycles they feel trapped in and feeling helpless to get out of it. Or being so trapped in the loop they're in, it has just become normal, a normal kind of unhappiness and discontent with the way things are. So how do you get out of the cycles, the looping of whatever you're experiencing? I'll talk about this more in the next blog but for now, I encourage you to just pay attention to the momentum, the loops, the daily habits of your life.
What do you find you're most experiencing? What are you getting 'tired' of? What cycle are you ready to stop?
And this is where we start.