How to Plan for the Future Amid the COVID-19 Crisis

As we move toward the holiday season with little cheer in sight it is hard to think about the future. We can look at the short term, but our sense of time has become distorted by COVID-19 being a part of our daily lives.

 In some way it seems like time only extends back to last March when normal time ended and covid time began. I have noticed I have grown nostalgic for things that happened in 2019. Memories of going out to eat, vacations and large gatherings with friends and family have a glow around them. Like they exist in a fairy tale. A life I can recall but that has lost the strand of continuity tying it to the place we are now.

 If we have lost that strand connecting our past to the present how do, we look ahead and make plans for the future? Not an easy thing to do and that requires a resetting of our internal sense of time and imaginations.

We need to have faith and a sense that what exists in our lives now is not a permanent thing but something transitory that will end. When we experience a trauma, it feels like the event will never end. It feels like it will go on and on forever. We have all been traumatized by our experiences with COVID-19 and that will take some time to move through.

We need to focus on giving ourselves the message that we will get through this. However difficult it is our current experience of COVID-19 is not a permanent feature of our lives. It certainly is a regular and upsetting part of our daily lives.

You can start by doing what you can to process your feelings, connect with others that support you and tell your story. Work with a therapist and have the safe space you need to express your feelings, your sense of loss and make sense of what is going on for you. When you are ready, looking ahead to a time when COVID-19 is something in your rear-view mirror. You can work with your therapist to create a metaphorical container for your fears and concerns. Do a guided meditation where you place them in there and put that box away. You can bring the box out when you want to focus on them and them place the box in a closet, or a safe. Then the experience of COVID-19 becomes a part of your life but the not the all-encompassing center point of your life.

You can journal, draw and imagine the world you will live in post COVID-19. “This too shall pass” so look ahead to what you want to do, experience and feel in the future. The travel plans that have been shelved can be dusted off and explored. Imagine the family gatherings that you will have. In your mind’s eye see the gathering filled with the happiness of being together with loved ones. Visualize a gorgeous spring day, with flowers in bloom and children playing together while the adults talk, hug and catch up with each other. See and feel the joy that will be yours in that desired and anticipated future.  Those days are coming as surely as the sun rises.

As the expression goes: “our thoughts become our reality.” So, create the thoughts that will become the reality you live beyond these challenging times.