Over the past month, I’ve been reflecting on what the world is going through but also how I experience it. And it’s been major to be able to look at the impact the pandemic has on what I’m thinking. I don’t think any of us have experienced anything like that, and it really is one of the most complex situations in modern history.
Venture capitalist Brad Feld posted a helpful idea attempting to make sense of this: We are going through three crises all at once — 1) a pandemic, 2) a financial crisis, and 3) a looming mental health crisis from the isolation/disruptive shift.
In addition, these are happening within multiple levels, local, state, nation-wide, and global.
My thought on this is that the complexity of such events is never linear, and the compound effect of so many things happening at once means that there is an endless amount of things to think about.
If you’ve been having a similar realization of how all-consuming these past months have been, I hope the threefold crisis articulation is helpful.
But how do we cope mentally?
I’ve been between:
“This is the worst thing ever”… and… “there’s a lot to be grateful for right now.”
“I can still be productive working from home like I’ve always been” and “Gosh I really miss being able to send an email from a cafe.”
“I am grateful to often be more introspective than ever, both personally and professionally” and “Fml, this is so exhausting I can’t focus on anything”
The biggest chunk of the mental/emotional progress I’ve made during the lockdown has come from making peace with diametrically opposing ideas.
Because it turns out, we’re not good at predicting the future. Maybe for a change, we can try to simply do our best for ourselves, our loved ones, and the people we serve, and let the future take care of itself.
In order to do that, besides memes, we need science-based coping strategies, and this brilliant acceptance-based meditation by Annaka Harris, in a world that’s clearly not going to return to “normal” any time soon.
I’ll see you next week.
George Kroustallis // Minorstep
