COVID Malaise

  It is ages since I last posted on my blog.

 As I looked back in my blog folder I realised that I had planned some posts in August, but I never got the length of completing or publishing them….

 …just as well. There were three of them as part of a series ‘Emerging from Lockdown’!

 Except of course we did not quite emerge and have not properly emerged and may be some considerable time away from fully emerging!

 The whole thing has been fragile, staggered, uncertain and frustrating, and it is having a negative effect on so many of us. Not that I am criticising the governments… not at all. I think that it is very important to seek to contain and control this virus and I do not think that the decisions our politicians have to take are at all easy.

 I am simply reflecting on the fact that this ongoing situation is causing many people to experience weariness, low mood, loss of motivation, irritability etc etc. (and for some people the effect on mental health is far more severe).

 In conversation after conversation people mention these same feelings.

 I feel them all too, sometimes more and sometimes less. But this general sense of ‘COVID-malaise’ is rarely far away.

 So how do we cope with this? What are the strategies for dealing with it? Where do we find strength and positive coping mechanisms? How do we build resilience?

 I am asking the questions not providing the answers! I really don’t know. I think some of my ways of coping may be healthier than some of my other ways of coping! For me, trying to maintain a routine, a pattern of spiritual devotion, making sure I get out and about every day, exercise and so forth definitely helps. I also think I need to plan to do creative things (music, writing etc) as the few times I have engaged with these it has definitely helped.

 But the big thing is, I am missing people. I am missing spending time with people pastorally, in meetings, socially and so on. I am missing handshakes, hugs and the like. I am missing ‘normal’ worship (ie without physical distancing and face coverings and with singing!)

 It is interesting (and instructive) to realise that I miss all of that. And perhaps more than anything it is this absence that causes COVID-malaise?