Coping During a Pandemic

Part of grief is allowing yourself to feel loss and sit with it in a way that you do not try to hide or dismiss pain. Allowing oneself to truly access pain, and to recognize that pain is not a binary situation is one mindful approach to coping. As Thich Nhat Hanh states in his text “No Mud, No Lotus” (2014), “When we suffer, we tend to think that suffering is all there is at that moment, and happiness belongs to some other time or place.” (p. 11). When in fact, we can learn to understand and engage with the presence of both happiness and suffering, and ultimately enjoy life more. It sounds complicated because we so often are led to believe these things do not exist together, but if this pandemic has shown us, even in the depths of our suffering, we can find hope.

Coping during a pandemic. What a bizarre sentence that prior to 2020, must have sounded like a dystopian nightmare. While there may be a sense that there is a feeling now as though the pandemic is over, in reality COVID-19 still rages on in all parts of the world and remains a concern for vulnerable groups. Vulnerable groups, who I would like to add are just as valuable and worthy of protection compared to less vulnerable groups. The improvement in reducing the sense of panic with the pandemic came largely thanks to effective vaccines that help deliver protection. Unfortunately, not everyone has access to vaccines in the world, and not all those fortunate enough to have access are choosing to become vaccinated against an infection-these realities allow the pandemic to persist.