Cultivating Resilience in a Pandemic
There’s a relationship between feeling mentally resilient and having agency or control over our situation.
Simply, we feel less resilient the less power we perceive ourselves to have.
Right now with the pandemic and restrictions from the government on our normal activities, there’s an increased risk of poor mental wellness from reduced social contact, fear, uncertainty, grief, and loss.
We may perceive that we have less power, but I encourage you to take a different look at it - because we can cultivate resilience based on where we derive our power from. (Please note - this doesn’t include systemic oppression, which can play a large role in who gets to be powerful in our society)
For example, I choose to listen to public health orders. Do I agree with everything? Not necessarily, but I do believe that they’re doing the best they can and I believe in the power of working together. We actually operated like this before the pandemic, too (there are absolutely policies, laws, and practices that need reform, and we make progress through lobbying, public expression, and election promises. This is part of living in a democracy).
So what’s different now? Change is generally slow, and pandemic regulations haven’t been. It’s been a change to every aspect of our society that’s unprecedented in living memory.
It’s much more difficult to feel a sense of agency right now when our measure of control we had in our life was based on one day looking like the next. It was based on perceived predictability and external factors.
When we instead cultivate our sense of power from within us, to fundamentally build the internal resilience of knowing that we can handle what comes our way, it changes us from being a victim of circumstance to being back at choice in how to live life.
It’s something we can cultivate, and it has a direct impact on how resilient we can be.
What are your thoughts? Where are you finding choice and empowerment during this pandemic?