I know you’ve said these six little words. I just wonder if when you say them, you get the same feeling I do each time they pass my lips. Because every time I say, 

“When things get back to normal…”

There’s a heaviness in my chest. A question on whether I should replace the “when” with an “if.” A sense that we’ve passed the point of no return. That just as September 11th shifted so much about how we live our lives, COVID-19 has done the same. Only we don’t fully know what it looks like yet.

Often, after this heaviness settles, another question follows: 

“Is our old normal worth going back to?”

Of course, this is a question we must all answer personally. But recently, there’s been meme’s, quotes, and even articles talking about how we might want our lives to be different from what they were before COVID. In some ways this all feels premature, as our country is by no means out of the woods yet. Only, it’s never too soon to begin to dream and work toward a new reality. After all,

Change takes time.

So if, we’re given a quiet moment in these endless social distancing days that both crawl and whiz by simultaneously—Why not reflect? Why not look back on how we were living our lives before this past March, and see if there is anything we’d like to change? And if so, why not begin the journey now?

Why not use this time when we’re unplugged from so much of the world, to decide how we’d like to plug back in, when the time comes?

Why not name what we’d like to be different, and then begin to take small steps toward that end? Why not use this time when we’re unplugged from so much of the world, to decide how we’d like to plug back in, when the time comes? What better opportunity will we ever have, to make a change?

Two weeks ago, writer Julio Vincent Gambuto warned us that the Ultimate Gaslighting is on its way. That as soon as we’re told it’s safe to leave our homes, there will be barrage of advertising telling us to resume our shopping and consuming. He is probably right. The challenge of this is that these messages will make it difficult for us to remember:

The choice to change is ours.

Despite whatever pressures from our previous life return, tempting messages we hear from commercials, or the feeling of our own internal pull towards the familiar—each of us all have a choice. And if we want to, we can choose differently than we have before. 

After all, the best person to make your decisions, is always you. For me, it’s always me. Whether it’s making a purchase, investing in a relationship, or saying yes to giving of our time—no one knows what is best for us except for us. 

If we want to, we can choose differently than we have before.

No one knows more than we do, what stressed us out pre-social distancing. No one knows what is giving us anxiety right now. And no one knows what we most feel called to or passionate about. 

In the same way, no one but us can discern what we may need to change or go back to from our pre-quarantine life. With this in mind, today I want to leave you with two questions to consider when your mind gravitates toward those six little words. When you wonder what life will be like “when things get back to normal,” I want to invite you to ask yourself: 

What are you missing most about your pre-social distancing life?

What parts of your life are you dreading going back to?

Perhaps your answers to these questions will be more telling than you realize. 

 

Feeling a little adrift in this strange, new normal of being at home? Sign up for my email list and get your free copy of my Social Distancing Survival Guide: Everyday Routines. Sign up here.

Photo by Sharon McCutcheon on Unsplash