Prescription for pandemic tedium

The other day, I sent my mother a this 'n that box. Believe me when I say there was nothing extraordinary in it, but putting it together and sending it off broke the tedium of the pandemic for me. Receiving it quite unexpectedly broke the tedium for my mother, and that made the box and its content spectacular.

But a daily box of this 'n that would lose the magic, would not induce excitement in either giver or receiver. So we are stuck with the tedium of our COVID-restricted world — and I think that what we need to cultivate is resilience.

Thanks to a Google search I found Dr. Lucy Hone, who says that resilience is a life skill that can be learned. Her TEDx Talk describes three strategies that can be employed to help develop resilience in the face of the COVID tedium that I am pretty sure we are all experiencing -- 

Understand that shit happens in everyone's life. Do not ask, Why me? when lockdown keeps you locked up. Instead ask, Why not me? Then get on with it. No one's life is Facebook or Instagram perfect.

Put your attention to things you can change and accept what you cannot. Windows dirty? Wash 'em. No live concerts available for your outing pleasure? Quit railing against the restrictions and listen to a CD instead. 

Ask yourself if what you're doing is helping you or harming you. If it's helping, carry on. If it's harming you, stop! This strategy puts you in the driver's seat and gives you control over your decision making.

Dr. Hone's particular focus is "resilient grieving", something she lives with every day since the death of her child. I think her approach to resilience -- as a learnable life skill that comes more naturally the more we practice her strategies -- is timely and relevant for all of us living in these COVID times: We are all in lockdown (shit happens). We cannot wish the virus away (focus on what we can change not on what we cannot). Do more of what is good for us (go for a walk) and less of what is harmful (another glass of wine).

These strategies won't eliminate the tedium, but I think they can help keep me on track to make it through the tedium. And I'll be damned if COVID is going beat me down to inertia. 

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A Post a Day in May No. 2: For the past two years, I have posted something to this blog every single day in May. This year, I hope to do it again. 

Photo by Cameron Raynes on Unsplash