How to Create Your COVID Reintegration Plan
Everyone I’ve talked to in the last month is wondering how to re-integrate into post-pandemic life. I get it. I’m right there with you. And as a coach, I’m encouraging my clients to pause and ask some questions:
What do you want your post-pandemic life to be like?
What are your options?
What supports do you need to make that life happen? Be realistic.
What action steps are you going to take to move it forward?
For some of us, we’re asking these questions not only for ourselves, but for our office and our families. Our family chose to have our youngest son go back to school in-person this week. I’m excited for him to have some normalcy. And, I miss our pandemic family bubble more than I expected. I realized that in-person school is a tiny step out of the pandemic and into our before-pandemic life. It feels like a necessary one for our family, and also a bit anxiety provoking.
Like many of you, I am both excited - and so relieved - to get vaccinated (2nd dose soon!). Instead of a dark pandemic tunnel, there’s now light and a sort-of-end, and hope and possibilities.
But...it feels weird doesn’t it? Like we collectively don’t exactly know what to do in this liminal time. Masks on or off once vaccinated? Are you vaccinated too; then maybe off? But that feels so odd. Are we sure? What about restaurants? Parties? Each step is tentative and cautious and uncertain. It’s an ambiguous time, which means it’s also the perfect time for growth.
We need to be mindful and intentional about how we come out of this pandemic, and how we re-integrate in a way that’s good for us.
I look to the concept of Post-Traumatic Growth (PTG) for help. PTG theory looks at why some people are able to transform their lives after trauma (COVID was collective trauma), often after a period of grappling with making meaning of the trauma. There are five elements of PTG:
Greater appreciation of life and a changed sense of priorities
Warmer and closer relationships with others
Greater sense of personal strength
Recognition of new possibilities or paths in one’s life
Spiritual development
Now is the time to start cementing your post-pandemic growth.
As the world starts re-opening, many of us will get to choose how we want to re-engage. What do we want to add back in? What new habits or routines or sweetness do we want to keep?
I’ve talked to a lot of friends and clients who tell me they don’t want life to go back to the way it was pre-pandemic. Me neither.
We do not need to revert to hustle culture.
Hustle culture was never our friend. It’s okay to let that go.
Personally, I like the slower pace. And, at the same time, there are things I want to do, like hug people, see smiles instead of smizes and sit in a buzzy coffee shop.
How do you determine what to add back?
Think about these questions:
How many of the PTG elements resonate with you as areas you have grown during the pandemic?
What does that growth tell you about what you value and how you actually, truly want to spend your time?
Next, make a list of areas you might add back into your life once the world reopens.
Then, consider each item on your list. Let it sit with you. How does each one measure up to the ways in which you want to spend your time? If it feels good, keep it. If it feels heavy or icky, consider not adding it back in.
For those of you who would like to go deeper, grab your journal and some tea. I’ve created this journaling practice with more questions to consider.
We are in an in-between moment where we can determine what we want and then ask for it. Mary Oliver’s quote seems more appropriate than ever: “What is it you plan to do with this one wild and precious life?”
It’s your choice. Be grateful. And choose wisely.
XO,
Patty