Post-Pandemic Anxiety

Re-Entry can be Rough

As we head into our second year of the pandemic, restrictions are easing in many areas. For some people, this is cause for unbridled celebration!

Many, however, are vacillating between elation and dread depending on the day.

There are countless articles in circulation discussing this "post-lockdown anxiety" or some call it "re-entry anxiety" so I won't rehash their points here.

The problem is that the authors typically just explain what it is and why it happens. They may add some advice on how we can cope with these feelings, but they are usually superficial strategies such as go-slow as you ease back into your pre-pandemic activities.

Mindfulness is Not Enough

More aware therapists might suggest being mindful of our thoughts and feelings. Long-time readers know I love that advice, but mindfulness is just the first step—it’s what we DO with our awareness that matters!

It's great to realize we're anxious and why, but what do we do about it?! We want to actually feel, learn from, and release these emotions. We want to keep our energy in motion aka e-motion.

In other words, we're not looking to merely "cope", we want to grow and heal and progress!

I say process our emotions a lot in these Journals which is just this:

🧘🏽 presence—being mindful of our emotions

😳 feel our emotions rather than numb or distract

📔 learn from these feelings

💥 release what we’re ready to let go of through techniques such as grounding

What does it look like?

I'll use myself as an example.

In California where I live, they are lifting restrictions which is imperative for our local businesses and our school-aged children in particular.

But when I am present to my emotions, I feel ambivalent and uncertain.

On the one hand, I am relieved. I know this is long overdue and signals the beginning of the end to the shutdowns. AND yet, another part of me secretly likes the lockdown because I don’t feel as much fear of missing out (FOMO).

If I just judge myself for liking the stay-at-home orders as being ugly or selfish or bad, then I’m incentivized to hide the feeling from myself and others.

I don’t want to be a selfish or bad person so I will bury my positive emotions about the shutdowns deep inside where no one, not even I, can see that dark, shadowy thinking.

It’s more fun and socially acceptable to put on a cheerleader persona—cheering for people to get their jobs back, our economy to be salvaged, for the kids to get back in school; I’d be fired up for the vaccines—anything to show that I want things to be good again for everyone.

Am I a Bad Person?

Does this feeling mean that I want people losing their jobs or being stressed about all the hardships from the shutdowns? Of course not. But if I am honest with myself, if I am willing to look at my emotions, I get to use them as neutral information for my own evolvement.

This feeling is GOLD!  it’s not an ugly truth that I need to hide in order for me to be socially accepted or to be a good or nice person. It’s simply a feeling—a message from my body, asking me to question:

Susan, why do you need a pandemic shutting everything down to help you feel relief from FOMO? What is underneath that feeling and how can you learn and heal from it? How can you feel free from FOMO on your own, anytime, anywhere, under any circumstances?

I can acknowledge this and release FOMO out of my body and down my grounding. I can release my victim energy that I am powerless, that I am dependent on external circumstances like a national shutdown to feel relief from the stress of FOMO.

When I release what I’m ready to let go of, I create the space to bring in whatever it is I’d like to cultivate—peace, trust, joy, enoughness.

This is a simple, pretty benign example, but this process works for even the most intense emotions.

Healing is Not Just for You

Now I have to say, that the purpose of going within and understanding yourself more is NOT just for you. We could spend our entire lives navel gazing trying to figure out how and why we tick. That’s NOT the point.

We go within to learn, heal, and evolve—not just for our own peace of mind or happiness—but so we can create the space to care about more important things.

When we go within to learn about ourselves to heal enough (we’re not striving for perfection), we will approach life from a place of wholeness and abundance.

We can lift our gaze away from ourselves and start to look at our relationships—first to our families then 👉 neighbors 👉 community 👉 statewide 👉 national 👉 worldwide wide 👉 all beings—for the greater good of our collective humanity, our planet, and every living being with whom we share our home, our Earth🌏!!!

The Right Goal

By healing ourselves, we create a positive impact vibration. We shift our focus from trying to win the race, trying to be on top with others below us, to wanting to be of service—not from an egoic place where we are validated for being so good, but truly from a place of supported abundance.

That is my goal for Ascended Presence. Our global healing is why this work matters so much.

If you would like to join a group of like-minded people doing the inner work which positively impacts our outer world, please join us in the Practicum.