Page 92 - FDCC Pandemic Book

Living in a Pandemic: A Collection of Stories on Coping, Resilience & Hope
two weeks that was far more exhausting than I ever would have anticipated. Even though I repeatedly fell off my track, I always forgave myself, reflected on all that I was dealing with and living in, and I just went back to the things I knew worked for me. Each time, they helped me pull myself out of whatever rut I had worked myself into before it became a ravine I couldn’t escape. Thus, my disciplines didn’t just help me stay steady; they helped me restore steadiness on the occasions when I lost it. And the faith that I could be lost and then found again was as helpful in maintaining and restoring my calm as the disciplines themselves.
Rightfully so, there is a lot of attention being paid to the impact that the pandemic has had on our mental health. Even in a normal year, lawyers have so many challenges to maintaining mental and even physical health. Adverse conditions, sudden change, and historical events certainly compound these problems. Because bad times inevitably come to us all, it behooves us to develop and consistently return to practices to monitor and maintain our mental health. My practices, simple as they were, saved me this year and I am grateful for them. In truth, my personal experience with desperation in the past had given me gifts that helped me survive this trying time.
If you didn’t have those practices in March, 2020 and have struggled during the pandemic, do not judge yourself harshly or compare yourself to anyone else. Give yourself what you need, give yourself time to heal, and then start paying attention to what feels healthy and good for you. After a while, you will develop a toolbox of strategies and disciplines that work to help you manage your own stress, monitor and maintain your mental health, and stay connected to your community. I know that this past year has been a struggle for most of us and we are still not out of the woods. After I lived through a very hard year of my own years ago, though, I was amazed how quickly and drastically things changed when I learned to make my own happiness a priority. Whatever 2021 brings us next, I hope that your happiness and mental health are priorities for you.
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