How To Get Your Life Back Together

Times have changed. Since March, we have moved from working from home and feeling like prisoners contained at home and to being stuck in limbo. We’re not sure whether to start going out again or to stay in, not to mention the paranoia that comes with being in crowded places.

A lot has changed in the world, our workplaces, schools and some of these changes are here to stay and will inform how our post-pandemic life will be.

Here’s how to get your life back together after pandemic: 

Take Time To Mourn Your Loss

Whether you’ve lost a loved one, a job, friendships or have had your hours reduced at work; take time to mourn these losses. Take time to mourn the plans you had for 2020 before creating alternative plans. 

Loss during a pandemic hits different especially because you can’t hug friends or family, can’t attend funerals and if you can, most of the funerals are supervised by authorities or the area chief.

Take time to feel your feelings, sit through them, acknowledge them and let them go. 

Embrace the new Normal

Social distancing, masks, sanitizers and other COVID-19 restrictions are with us to stay and will continue to be observed until we get a vaccine for the virus. These restrictions are here to protects us from the virus and save lives.

Feeling anxious about being outside, being in crowded places is a normal response. You might have to learn new things like recognizing the difference between fear, anxiety and incoming panic attacks and understand their triggers.

Get Ready To Get Back To Work 

Going back to work will happen. Sooner for some, later for others. It’s going to look different for everyone.

If you have been working from home, your company might come up with social distancing measures at work to ensure everyone is safe.

For those who have been furloughed, laid off, or been sent on unpaid leave, going back to work will mean packaging yourself for employment, or looking at your skills and their demand in the gig economy.

Embrace The Measures Set by The Government and Institutions Moving Forward

Some building and institutions will require you to wear your masks, social distance and sanitize post-pandemic, and rightly so. Our workplaces might also set up measures to ensure we’re safe while working, so will schools, hospitals and other institutions.

We all have an obligation to make sure these measures are followed to protect our health and the health of the global wider community.

Take Care of Your Mental Health

The pandemic has led to an increase in mental health cases. People who have never experienced anxiety before have developed anxiety, not to mention the loneliness, depression and panic that comes with staying indoors, working from home and having to homeschool children.

Anxiety can be crippling, and if you can, seek professional help. If you’re unable to, make lifestyle changes that make you feel more in control of your life, such as reducing your news intake, having slow mornings, expressive arts therapy and taking at least 48 hours to react to any ‘breaking news’ and urgent needs from outsiders. If it’s still urgent or breaking news after 48 hours, attend to it.

Take A Better Look At Your Finances

If you have no finances to look at due to job loss, see point #3. For some of us with one form of employment or another, we may have found ourselves with a survival mentality and a no spending period.

To get out of survival mentality, try helping people who have been affected by the pandemic. If you have found yourself in debt from borrowing from friends, family or banks, create a repayment plan that enables you to pay a minimal amount every month.

All of us have to get our lives back together post-pandemic. Whether we have to deal with loss and grief, unemployment and underemployment, or make new plans, we have to pick up the pieces. Hopefully, these tips will help you when you’re ready to create your post-pandemic life.

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