You know those signs that appear on pretty suburban lawns? The ones that say "It's all going to be okay!" or "Everything will be okay!" in cheery colors? Well guess what!?
We aren't all okay. We are far from okay. I learned today that gun sales in Massachusetts, the hardest state in the nation to buy a gun, have gone up by 85% compared to a year ago. I learned that overdoses and suicides are up. And we all know that unemployment is a rocking 20% in the United States.
And guess what? All the posts on social media moralizing everything we are doing - whether it be wearing or not wearing masks, or opening up the economy - none of that is helping. It's like watching kids bickering and finally saying "Enough! Go to your rooms RIGHT THIS MINUTE! I don't want to hear another word from you!"
So don't tell us we are all going to be okay. We are not in the same boat. If you have a regular pay check, then you may want the country to stay closed. If you don't have a pay check - you may want it to open so that you can feed your family and pay your rent. If you are a recovering addict, desperately needing your support group, then you may want the country to open. If you have diabetes and other co-morbidities that make you more at risk for COVID-19, then you may want it to stay closed. You may think keeping an economy closed is a moral issue, but the person who just learned that their family member struggling with depression committed suicide, a result of severe depression and loneliness, may think that opening the country is a moral issue. We all have things we'd like to moralize about. GIVE EACH OTHER A BREAK and stop this nonsense.
None of this is easy and we are not okay.So what? What is my solution?
The only thing I have is to lean into your discomfort. Lean deep into it. Scream. Cry. Rage. Bite your pillow. I promise you it will help.
"Lean into your discomfort" - face the sadness, the madness, the anger, and the hard.
Lean into your discomfort.But how? How do I lean into my discomfort so that I can come out the other side?
Google the phrase and you get about 7,090,000 results in .45 seconds. This is a phrase that people use a lot. It is the social worker's mantra - Lean into your discomfort. Don't deny the pain, the grief, the anger, the frustration.
There are times when leaning into my discomfort is less complicated than others. Today is a perfect example. I just had to do it, I had to navigate the feelings, the tears, the email system that didn't work, the powerpoint that I had not yet completed, the things that are making me angry - all of it. Other times leaning into my discomfort is so painful I want to anesthetize the process with whatever I can, whether it be sleep, or food, or denial, or putting so much distraction into my life that I don't have to think about the discomfort.
But ultimately, I have to do it."Lean into your discomfort" is a phrase that works for me. It doesn't deny the process, it doesn't diminish the pain. Instead it challenges me that in leaning into the pain, the discomfort, the confusion, the grief, we learn to walk. First in baby steps, then in regular steps, finally in giant steps.
The steps are like playing the childhood game of "Mother May I?"
"Mother may I take three giant steps" says the child. And the one who is 'Mother' says "No but you can take three baby steps" or "No but you can take one scissor step". The goal is to reach 'mother' who is at the end of the court. When 'Mother' isn't looking, the child on the court tries to sneak a couple more steps in, wanting to reach the goal faster. Leaning into our discomfort is sometimes like asking for giant steps and getting baby steps; or asking for baby steps and being told we have to take a giant step - only our legs are short and our giant steps feel small.
It is a long process. But the more we lean, the less we try to gloss over and pretend it's all okay; the less we sit defeated, mourning the life we find ourselves in. The more we face our feelings and circumstances, the quicker we arrive at a place of understanding, at a place that is more comfortable. The more we lean, the taller we stand and the braver we become - and the kinder we can be to each other.
That's all I have. That's it. Because it really isn't all okay right now.[Photo credit: https://pixabay.com/photos/atlanta-background-brick-city-5065797/]