Struggling to Stay Positive? That’s Ok!
It’s safe to say we’re all feeling a bit exhausted with everything happening in the world right now. The natural inclination is to lean on all those glass half full memes or succumb to the pressure of “looking at the bright side,” but sometimes that approach makes the weight feel that much heavier. Then there’s the guilt. Guilt for knowing that others have perhaps been more impacted than you, and for still feeling so despondent.
“When we talk about grief, we usually think of it as the loss of a loved one. As a psychologist in the New York area, I have had to counsel many patients who have lost people near and dear to them to COVID. That is the traditional form of grief,” says Sanam Hafeez, PsyD, a neuropsychologist and faculty member at Columbia University. “Then there is less spoken grief, which is the loss of a way of life. People are mourning the life they once knew. A life where we could touch each other, socialize freely, go to sporting events, work in our offices, travel, and live without the daily fear of catching a potentially deadly virus.”
Excerpted from Real Simple
