Is going “back to normal” even possible?
Journal prompt to consider this week
Yesterday I spoke with a good friend who has recently experienced a large loss, a myriad of unexpected changes, and many stressful situations. These were on top of the many that we are collectively experiencing with the shifts in our world due to the pandemic. With so many sudden changes, she described a constant feeling as though she's lost her balance.
I wonder if you can relate to that feeling? Each of our experiences with loss this past year has been unique, and yet loss from unexpected change has been widespread. We may have felt like we just want the changes to stop, so we can retrieve our balance. I think many of us can say we've done what we needed to do to survive in this pandemic. However, how many of us have stopped long enough to consider the impact the many changes have taken on our bodies, mental health, and hearts along the way? For good or bad, both, and everything in between, the changes we've experienced have certainly made an impact.
There is a lot of chatter currently about when lives and routines can go "back to normal". Once we get a sense of normalcy in one or two areas of our lives, it may be tempting to want to rush back to it all and for our lives to be the same they once were. And yet, my friend, I wonder if that is possible.
My friend and mentor, Tia Norman, asks us to consider, "What if our 'normal' doesn't want us to return to it and instead wants us to grieve it?" Well, that doesn't sound fun.
How about I don't grieve and just "get over it" instead?
Dr. Tim VanDuivendyk says, "Grief is an unwanted gift, but a gift we must use. If we don’t do our grief work, our grief may grieve us in some form of physical illness or symptoms."
Okay, so do I create space for grieving?
We'll begin a creative conversation regarding life, loss, and change this Thursday, March 18th in our next open Vision Journaling workshop and continue it in next month’s workshop on April 15th.
To view how I made the Vision Journal page pictured at the top of the post, click the video below.