By Catherine Lang-Cline
You wake up and you can’t leave the house. The entire world is in quarantine! If I could have chosen something that the entire world could participate in together, this would not have been my first choice, not even my 500th choice. I would have chosen something entirely more positive, but with that said, can something positive come out of this?
Many of us humans lead a very fast-paced life, especially Americans. We pride ourselves on working hard, digging deep, achieving more, being successful no matter what the cost. Now that we can’t “fire on all cylinders” and we have the opportunity to breathe, we can look around and see what we have sacrificed for all of that busy work.
With all of the events canceled, you are stuck at home with your family and your worldly possessions. How did you do? Are you happy? Sometimes being left alone with our things and our thoughts gives us the moment to breathe and see if everything is running smoothly. You get to spend more time with your family. Does everyone like each other or are there relationships that have been sacrificed during all of our busy work? Has your home been neglected? Are you talking more to your parents now that you want to make sure they are behaving and staying healthy?
The next question is, what do you want back in your life? Now that everything has been stripped away are you missing the late nights at the office? Are you missing all of the travel related to work? Are you missing all of the meetings?
And finally, what have you actually liked about this simpler life? Are you reading more, walking, working out more, or meditating? Are you remembering why you selected your spouse because now you have time to actually talk? Did you get that pet you’ve always wanted?
Let’s take all of that and think about how we want our lives to be, we have the time to do it after all. When this is all over, what is completely necessary, and what was just clutter? Do we want to get back to the “the grind” or lead a more purposeful life? We are being given the opportunity to cherry-pick our favorite things from the old way to this new way and while this seems like forever, it won’t be. You need to be ready to say “no” to all of the things that were really not that necessary and above all, say “yes” to the things that are.
