I was talking with a friend yesterday and we were wondering about what will be add back into our lives with the coronavirus crisis passes. Whether that’s in a month or two months or a year or two years what we choose to put back into our lives?
This prompted some thoughts about anxiety. For most of us, anxiety it’s about difficulty dealing with the unknown. The coronavirus has put into high relief the fact that what really matters is our ability to live each day and to be close to people that we care about.
Existential theorists argue that most anxiety is really about our desire to avoid thinking about the human condition; i.e., the fact that we will one day not exist. In other words, existentialists view anxiety as a way to help us avoid thinking about death.
Now with Coronavirus, we are thinking about life and death issues all the time. I’m wondering if when the coronavirus ends, we will choose to keep in the forefront of our mind what really matters: connecting with people who we love and who love us back.
Maybe this means letting go of toxic relationships for some people. Perhaps for others it means letting go of needing to have a certainty about small components of living (did I put the proper sunscreen on my child before s/he left for school.) Maybe that means worrying a little less about money and focusing on the wealth of relationships around us. Or maybe it means really focusing on what we want to achieve in our working life and moving ourselves forward.
I’m not sure what I will add back in when the coronavirus ends. But I know that I will try to keep in the forefront of my mind that which is really important.
