I am COVID cranky. Are you?
The signs
Being irritable with your spouse, yelling at the dog, hating all meals, especially hating having to still cook so many meals, feeling tired ALL THE TIME. Everything brings another layer of anxiety, from meeting people with no masks on at the grocery store to the oppressive heat and humidity. I wonder if the next proposal will be accepted and then wonder if will we be safe both from the virus and from a fall off the financial cliff.
The source
A virus you can’t see, and never knowing whether you are inhaling it; politicians who just don’t get it (and yeah, I’m talking left, right and everything in between); confinement in a small space even though you live in a big house, or confinement in a small space constantly wishing you lived somewhere else; ever-present health and mounting financial worries; and work-from-home distractions (from the chair you sit in to the kids to the dogs to the neighbors); and the grating inability to physically see your customers and co-workers leading to unreliable guesses at their thoughts and reactions.
Oh yes, we are COVID cranky.
A few solutions
We now live with growing awareness of so much we cannot change or control. Sometimes we mistake that absence of control for what we cannot do, and we sink under the thought that we are powerless. So it is important to take the time to make ourselves aware of what is good right now, and what we can do to distance ourselves from the COVID cranky feeling.
- Pay it forward. What small act of encouragement can you practice today?
- Lend your gratitude and expertise to others.
- Clear your headspace by stepping away from the headlines. Make time for a quiet moment, away from the media frenzy.
- Be kind. Kind is a word derived from the noun kin. We are kin to each other in these circumstances.
- Don’t be less than you can be right now. We will all come through this time together.
