Validate your feelings
A lot of things are not normal now, but your feelings certainly are
I do not only refer to the direct effects of COVID-19, but primarily the indirect after-effects of it.
How will the Cypriot and World economy bounce back from this global crisis?
How will my finances recover in the coming months?
Will I manage to pay my bills/debts?
What happens to my starting career?
Will I go to university?
What happens to my job?
How does my child’s education continue?
These are just a few concerns that I can think of; I’m sure there are hundreds more that the average person worldwide is facing. I am not here to disprove these concerns, or offer you solutions to them, as I am among the many of us having them as well.
I am here to help you acknowledge that all your feelings in response to this global pandemic crisis are normal. Let me write that one more time - all your feelings are normal. They are expected, they make sense, they can be explained and they should be acknowledged.
I use the quote “what you resist, persists” by Carl Jung, often in therapy. What that means is that any feelings you are trying to bury, hide, or fight off - gives them that much more power to rule over you. Whatever feeling you try to resist, not only it persists, but it also grows in size. Rather than fighting against these very natural emotions, I propose an alternative.
Acceptance - Compassion - Love - Grace
These are important values that we all strive towards showing towards others - why not work towards showing these values towards ourselves? Accept the feelings of stress, anxiety, uncertainty, fear, sadness, grief, or anger that you are experiencing, show compassion towards yourself by recognizing the difficult situation you are in, and move through the feeling with love and grace.
Think about it: The act of hiding or fighting against these feelings, what has this given you? What have you gained by not acknowledging your emotions? Give yourself a minute to think through this question. My guess is you are probably listing some short-term solutions it has offered you, but not any long-term ones.
Remember, what you resist, persists. What you fight, you get more of. What you embrace, dissolves Take the power back to yourself and use it towards something helpful.
So instead of resisting your true emotions, accept them, understand them, and move through them instead of against them. What do you have to lose?