gaudior

Hi, all. (Or, well, anyone who still has me on your flist since I stopped posting three years ago.). I'm not exactly back, but I am spending every workday talking to people about how to emotionally handle the global pandemic, and often coming up with things that seem useful. So I would like to share one of those things with you, ideally every day before I go home.

1) Remember your strengths.

It's very tempting, in the face of unprecedented upheaval, to start trying to predict all the ways that things could go badly. What if I get sick? What if someone I love gets sick? What if millions of people die? What if the economy collapses? What if there's huge civil unrest? What if...! until you are entirely wrapped up in possibilities and panic.

You cannot actually plan for each of these terrible possibilities. There are too many of them, and too many factors, and some of them are probably mutually contradictory. (We won't have both that asshole in the White House sending everybody back to the streets to die by Easter and also you personally being stuck in your house for so long that you starve.)

But no matter what comes, odds are good that you will use the same tools to deal with it. You have strengths that make you resilient, strengths that you have used to face problems in your life before, and you will use those same ones for whichever apocalypse or inconvenience hits you. Maybe you're very creative; maybe you have someone or several someones who love you and will do their best to take care of you; maybe you have $x thousand dollars in the bank. Maybe you're just very, very stubborn. Whatever strengths have gotten you this far, they are the ones you will use to face what comes next.

So don't waste your time and energy and peace of mind trying to plan for every possible doomsday. Instead, remember and list all the things you've used to get through tough things before, and think about whether there's anything you can do to enhance those. Brainstorm how the utopia you want could be triggered by these events. Stay in touch with the people who care about you. Pay attention to your budget. Keep being stubborn, dammit. Find ways to focus on the strengths you have, and whatever comes next, you will be more ready.

--R