Give yourself a few minutes to do that.
It’s easy to get wrapped up in the news, the reports, our social media feeds. It becomes a blur of confirmed cases, reported deaths, “flatten the curve” and wondering when the peak will come and go. Before we know it, we’re down the wormhole.
We fear for our friends and loved ones who classify as “high risk” while also feeling concerned (and grateful) for essential workers putting themselves in harm’s way every day.
As business owners, we’re thinking about our employees. We’re thinking about our clients, and our patients. It’s easy to forget about ourselves in all of this, but this is an immensely stressful time for business owners, and we need to process what we’re feeling.
Give yourself a few minutes to do that.
The COVID-19 crisis and the ensuing shutdowns & social distancing guidelines have removed any sense of normalcy. We are all experiencing loss. We are all experiencing grief.
It may not seem like the right way to describe what we’re feeling: grief. But that’s what it is. The five stages of loss are denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. It’s not hard to connect each of those stages to the coronavirus pandemic.
David Kessler is an expert when it comes to grief. He co-wrote On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief through the Five Stages of Loss. In a really insightful interview with the Harvard Business Review, Kessler said this about naming your grief and emotions:
“When you name it, you feel it and it moves through you. Emotions need motion. It’s important we acknowledge what we go through.”
Give yourself a few minutes to do that.