Staying Well Like it’s My Job
So dunno if you’re noticing but there is a mental health crisis, and a drug and alcohol addiction surge happening right now too. You can ask Mike for data, I’m mostly using my circle and my circle’s circle which offers plenty of anecdotal evidence. I’m hearing friends of friends suiciding, OD’ing, giving up, feeling hopeless and alone. I’m hearing a lot of stiff upper lip holding on while blue and baffled. There’s an uptick in sadness, an uptick in general “WTF how am I supposed to keep going?” It’s cold. It’s dark. People are sick or recovering from sick or mourning losses of the sick or bearing extra workload without the help of the sick or just being afraid of being sick. And tired of doing what it takes to keep going, take care, stay safe, stay sane.
I get it. I’m lonely too. I’m pissed that this thing is still here and that there’s uncertainty and suffering and death — yup still lots of covid deaths particularly for the unvaxxed and/or those who are old, or have other “co-morbidities” asthma, diabetes, obesity, heart disease — so I don’t want to be passing this thing around even if I could convince myself it wouldn’t be so bad for me myself (and Mike is not a fan of me saying or thinking things like that — when I do he always has a recent triple-vaxxed young healthy totally effed up from the virus person to point to). I don’t blame anyone for wishful thinking I personally don’t get to engage in it — we’re too close to near real time (real time?) data tracking on cases and hospital admissions and deaths and all this stuff a big part of me would prefer not to know.
But I do know it, so I know it would be so selfish for me to relax my standards. Even if I were unlikely to die, being taken down for days or weeks, or affected for even longer, would affect others. It would be more than an inconvenience to myself, more than just my own suffering in a bubble of one.
So I’m taking care of myself like it’s my job — protecting myself, eating well, sleeping well, reaching out to others to give and receive support, which a lot of the time looks like chatting, or zooming, taking walks, waking up early to have some quiet time, to connect with that inner knowing that this too shall pass, and that I get to self-regulate my inside like it’s my job even as so much stuff on the outside is not how I wish it were. I get to be grateful for whatever there is to be grateful for, which is a lot it turns out. My faucets bring water, my dog brings cuteness, my family brings love, I matter. When I take care of myself I get to be part of the solution. I’m gonna keep going.
www.livingeveryminuteofit.com
www.combatcovidstress.com
Breathe in smooth, breathe out smooth
one more time
again
