It’s a thing. This thing we’ve all been feeling. It has a name.

This anxiety and depression and confusion of the roller coaster of COVID. In June we thought things were looking up. We were getting vaccinated and maybe we could eat in restaurants again and do all the things we missed.

We celebrated the 4th of July. We socialized, we traveled, we ate out, and did things with other people. We stepped outside our bubble and felt… mixed about it. Then, this Delta variant moved in and we wondered. At the same time, businesses started talking about employees returning to the office, and then we were making plans for kids going back to school. We were getting nervous. Even as we socialized, we kept worrying in the back of our minds. Is this right? Can we do this? Should we do this? and Do I want to go back to my office/place of business again? What’s gonna happen next?

I’m right there with you and I see it and feel it in my shoulders and in almost all of your shoulders too. This anxiety, this depression, this unknowing… It’s all there in our bodies. The knots in your shoulders, the stiffness in your back. I’ve got it too.

Amy Cuddy wrote this article for the Washing Post and she coined the term, Pandemic Flux Syndrome. It’s fairly short and totally worth the read. She says, “People who tend toward anxiety might be experiencing strong urges to make major life changes, she suggested; meanwhile, people who tend toward depression are feeling compelled to withdraw and shut down. Both reactions are grounded in the desire to escape.” I know I have been getting the itch to travel, and besides COVID halting my plans to return to Thailand and finish training with my teacher in London, it might be more than that. Maybe I am looking for a break, a way out, the exit door. Are you? It sure would be nice to take a break and just rest. Rest without the worry in the back of our head!

Amy Cuddy was on Brene Brown’s podcast, and it is a wonderful 1-hour talk. They discuss her article and so much more. It’s well worth a listen.

It may be overwhelming at times, and there is so much suffering. We cannot turn away from people who have lost so much in the past 18 months. We have seen that support is necessary for our societies to not just survive, but thrive. This article from the Atlantic, The Pandemic Did Not Affect Mental Health the Way You Think, encourages, “Human beings are not passive victims of change but active stewards of our own well-being.” So let us be active in helping - ourselves and our communities.

All this has been on my mind. I have been thinking about our collective stress and I have a few ideas and things I’ve been working on.

Let me know your thoughts.
Liz