Re-Emerging, Re-Entering, and Re-Discovering

I don’t know about you, but I am seeing a sharp increase in the number of people getting their COVID shot, more and more pictures of people gathering in pub gardens in the UK, and an uptick in the number of social posts expressing hopes and desires about a future that seemed to be impossible to imagine just a few short months ago.

While news of new COVID strains emerge and stories of an increase in COVID infections in other parts of the world are shared, Joe Biden has announced that everyone in America is now eligible for a COVID vaccine.

For some people the idea of ‘being back’ is thrilling, whereas for others the thought of emerging into a new normal is positively daunting. I have heard people talking openly about their anxieties about being in crowded places again, about whether they will ever engage in activities that used to seem so normal [like eating a piece of birthday cake when someone else has blown out the candles], or about what it will be like to sit next to someone on public transportation once more.

Re-Entry Anxiety, as it is being referred to, is real for many people.

While re-entry seems to be a certainty in the not too distant future, the manner in which we re-enter seems to be up for debate.

My advice? Be intentional, not accidental.

STEP 1: Check-in with yourself, check-in with your loved ones. Perhaps you learned through this year-and-some-change about the things that feed your soul and those that do not. Did you shed some old ways of thinking and acting that you do not want to return? Did you welcome in some new ones that you want to keep?

STEP 2: Having checked-in with yourself, the next step is to be deliberate about what you do want and don’t want to be true about your life as you re-emerge. Another way of doing this is to think about and then articulate your boundaries. Things you will do, won’t do, or might do under certain circumstances.

STEP 3: Think about what support you need and what resources you might need to help you stay true to your boundaries and needs. Whether that be a good friend who will support you, a coach, a therapist, or a daily mindfulness ritual.

I really do believe now is the perfect moment to be thinking about this.